Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Acting Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Mary Uduk, has urged youths in the habit of gambling to consider taking advantage of the several investment opportunities in the Nigerian capital market.
In a recent interview, the SEC chief said investment in the capital market was safer than gambling.
According to her, rather than put money in a bet, youths can put their funds in mutual funds and yield good returns after a time.
Ms Uduk said youths can invest in the money market, insurance, capital market, real estate, infrastructure among others.
“We have various products that are very attractive where they can invest their money. We have commenced investor education and enlightenment for Nigerians to understand the benefit of these funds which gives more interest that saving money in bank account,” she said.
The acting DG noted that though Nigeria does not presently “have any laws on gambling, we have mutual funds and it covers every asset in the capital market.”
“The youths can invest in these, rather than leave your money in savings account you can invest in mutual funds. It runs like savings account and after three months you can withdraw your money same way as you do with the banks.
“We don’t have to go and gamble, you need to let them know that there are so many products in the capital market that they can invest in rather than going to gamble and losing their money,” she stated.
Giving an update on the committee set up by the Capital Market Committee last year to look into regulating crypto currencies in the country, Ms Uduk said, “In the last CMC we talked about it and inaugurated a Committee in respect of FinTech. The committee was charged with coming up with a FinTech Road map on the capital market community and we also informed you that we now have a dedicated Division in the Commission on that.
“The Committee is working assiduously to decide what regulations we can make in this area. The commission has the mandate to protect investors. We know that crypto assets are volatile unlike ordinary assets.
“Since January 2017, we have been asking investors to be vigilant when it comes to that area. We don’t want to get in the way on innovation. Regulators across the globe are paying attention to what is happening in this sphere.
“On the one hand they want to protect investors and on the other hand they want to support innovation. On all fronts the SEC is looking at development in the FinTech space.
“There is also ongoing collaboration led by the CBN, there is an inter-agency committee on virtual currencies on which the SEC is working with other market operators. In no distant time, the SEC will come up with regulations on crypto currencies.
“We are embarking of investor education so that investors understand what it is all about.”
