By Dipo Olowookere
Acting Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Mary Uduk, has warned newly qualified authorised dealing clerks of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to abide by the highest principled standard expected in their profession.
On Monday, July 15, 2019, a total of 46 new stockbrokers were inducted after going through rigorous trainings at the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
Ms Uduk, while addressing the new stockbrokers at their induction ceremony in Lagos recently, said they must always maintain the integrity of their profession and imbibe culture of compliance to rules and regulations and transparency as they carry out their activities in the market.
According to her, SEC does not tolerate infractions as steps are being taken to ensure that regulatory oversight was more effective, investor protection advanced, and systemic risk mitigated.
Head of Corporate Communications at SEC, Efe Ebelo, said in a statement that Mrs Uduk tasked the new stockbroking professionals to be “determined to bring positive changes into the market as you launch your careers and challenge the status quo in the areas of capacity building and innovativeness, while bringing fresh and innovative ideas into product development, as well as efficiency in service delivery to the investors.”
“We at the SEC are conscious of our dual mandates of regulating and developing the Nigerian capital market for the continued and consistent growth of the Nigerian economy, which is why we have been pushing the initiatives that include the E-dividend Management Mandate System, Direct Cash Settlement and Multiple Application Regularisation Initiatives, so as to properly educate your clients and increase the level of awareness in our market.”
Represented at the event by the Director of Lagos Zonal Office at SEC, Mr Stephen Falomo, the acting DG told the inductees that, “This ceremony marks the final point at which the inductees become full-fledged dealing members of the NSE, a position of great trust; because now you will be handling investments for individual and corporate investors and this you must do with utmost care and highest standards of integrity and ethical practice to forestall any breach of trust.”
She said the use of ICT has been fully integrated into financial services and as such financial technology (Fintech) and regulatory technology (Regtech) are trending, having been embraced by both the operators and the investors as ways to further enhance the growth and expansion of business in addition to regulatory and compliance issues, urging the newly inducted members to ensure that they all get grounded on the relevant technological advancement necessary to ensure that they can cope with the pace in today’s market, while staying ahead of perpetrators of cyber-crimes, who may attempt to compromise the market.
Ms Uduk acknowledged the roles of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) and the NSE for their “unyielding commitment to ensuring the continued growth of the market by producing young, dynamic and professional stockbrokers, who are admitted as authorized dealing clerks.”
She expressed the hope that NSE and CIS would keep on innovating for the benefit of the market and investors alike, as a means of deepening the capital market and positioning it as a catalyst for economic growth and development of the country, saying “as you all know, continuous capacity building in our financial market is a very important part of the capital market development.”
Adedapo Adesanya