By Dipo Olowookere
Acting Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Mary Uduk, has solicited the support of the media in sensitising the investing public in the various policies of the regulatory agency aimed at deepening the capital market.
Ms Uduk made this plea while addressing newsmen last weekend on outcome of the first Capital Market Committee (CMC) for 2019 held in Lagos.
The CMC was mainly established to serve as a medium for exchange of ideas among market stakeholders as well as for feedback to SEC on how to continuously improve the market activities and regulation.
It is an industry-wide committee comprising members of the commission, representatives of capital market operators and trade groups and other stakeholders. The CMC meets every quarter to deliberate on various issues affecting the market and other policy matters.
The SEC chief told capital market correspondents at the briefing that, “The market was informed of some successes recorded thus far in the regularization of multiple share subscription. Through this exercise, some Nigerian investors in diaspora have been able to consolidate their shareholding accounts. Similarly, several local investors with numerous accounts have also been able to consolidate their investments.
“We therefore enjoin the general public to take advantage of this initiative to regularize their shareholding accounts before the December 31, 2019 deadline. We crave the indulgence of the ladies and gentlemen of the press to sensitize the public on this initiative.
“We continue to seek the support of the media and the collaboration of the entire market as we strive to build the capital market of our dreams.”
Speaking on the success recorded by the dematerialization of shares of listed companies in the capital market, she said the committee wants the exercise extended to shares of unlisted companies, emphasising that this was necessary in a bid to further deepen the market.
She said further that the extension of the exercise to shares of unlisted public companies would also enhance liquidity and ease market processes, enhance market dynamism, and decision making in securities investment, among others.
“Dematerialization is the process of converting physical shares into electronic format. The Investor surrenders his physical shares and in turn gets electronic shares in his demat account.
“The advantages of dematerialization are many: it enables the investor to trade at any time without necessarily passing through the bottlenecks of verifying the share certificates any longer, because the shares are now domiciled with CSCS, he can give a mandate to his broker at any time and the broker accesses the Exchange that same day and trade for him.”
