Senate Expresses Commitment to Safe Capital Market

The Nigerian Senate has assured investors in the nation’s capital market of safety of their investments.

This assurance was given on Wednesday in Abuja during a meeting between the Senate Committee on Capital Markets and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Chairman of the Senate Committee, Mr Ibikunle Amosun informed the management of SEC headed by Ms Mary Uduk that the Nigerian economy was in dire need of investments from both local and international investors, adding that there was need to support the SEC in that direction.

“We are here today to meet with the management of the commission to know their areas of difficulties and explore ways we can introduce new laws or amend old ones to ensure that Nigeria becomes investors destination of choice.

“We are aware some of the enabling laws were made many years ago and probably no longer meet present day realities. The capital market can help fund a lot of our infrastructure deficit and that is why we are here,” the immediate past Governor of Ogun State said.

He further said for any nation to develop, the capital market has to be taken seriously, noting that, “If the regulators are not very active, there would be issues because this market thrives on integrity and confidence. If people don’t have confidence in the market, they will not bring their money.”

In her remarks, the acting Director General of SEC, Ms Mary Uduk, said the commission, being the apex regulator in the capital market, is responsible for overseeing the affairs of the capital market.

“We over-see a lot of enforcement issues like Ponzi scheme. Presently we are going to expand our enforcement activities around Ponzi schemes to sensitise Nigerians on the dangers of investing in them.

“We already do a lot of enlightenment in that regard, but we are going to do more by translating these initiatives into Nigerian languages and Pidgin English and produce short videos for illustration.

“These initiatives are contained in the 10-year capital market master plan and we are going a step further to focus on commodities in a bid to diversify our economy,” she said.

Ms Uduk disclosed that as part of the efforts by the commission to deepen the market and attract more investors, it recently held an International Conference on Commodities Market, where various recommendations were preferred on ways to have a vibrant commodities trading ecosystem in Nigeria.

According to her, while it is clear that Nigeria is well endowed with agricultural, metals and energy commodities, our potentials in these areas are unrealised.

She said, “The good news however, is that the capital market can be used as an avenue to unlock these potentials and diversify the nation’s economy, while providing jobs, creating values and contributing to governments’ revenue.

“We believe that if we can develop and institutionalise a vibrant commodities trading ecosystem in Nigeria, we can substantially address problems such as lack of storage, poor pricing, non-standardization, as well as low foreign exchange earnings affecting our agriculture and other commodities sub-sectors.”