SEC Introduces Initiatives to Reduce Transaction Costs, Time to Market

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

A number of initiatives have been introduced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to address time to market and promote ease of doing business.

These initiatives include the introduction of a framework to facilitate electronic offerings of securities; the checklist review regime which minimises the time spent reviewing transaction documents and which is expected to facilitate the introduction of the deemed approval regime; the introduction of an option to the filing of fourth quarter returns subject to filing the financial statements within two months of the end of the financial year; and rules in respect of gift distributions at General Meeting and prohibition of meetings with select investors before a general meeting.

Acting Executive Commissioner in charge of Operations at SEC, Mr Isyaku Tilde, informed issuers during a meeting in Lagos on Thursday that these initiatives were introduced because of the agency’s commitment to the present administration’s ideals of promoting the ease of doing business.

“We also have other initiatives like the ongoing review of the code of conduct for shareholders’ associations, all these are geared towards ensuring that we address the issue of time to market.

There is also ongoing engagement with the exchanges on addressing the issue of ease of doing business and minimising duplication of efforts with the regulator and the Exchange in a bid to reduce time to market,” Mr Tilde said.

He confirmed the ongoing engagements with PENCOM, CBN and other agencies on several issues including margin loans, especially now that the finance act has provided tax incentives for security lending.

“The commission has its input into the macro-economic policy and also held a budget seminar which determines how the capital market can play a role in financing the budget; The commission is part of the FSRCC (Financial Services Regulation Coordination Committee) which discusses relating to the stability of the financial market and the economy,” he said.

On sustainability, the SEC Commissioner said the regulator has developed a framework for the capital market which listed companies and market operators are expected to comply with which is principle based and not rule based and therefore requires disclosures.