SEC Urges Retail Investors To Embrace Capital Market

In a bid to make the market more inclusive and grow the nation’s economy the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has called on retail investors to invest in the capital market.

The Acting Director-General of SEC, Mary Uduk made the call on the sidelines of the recently held Thisday Awards 2020 in Lagos.

According to Uduk the capital market has a variety of products that may fit into the needs of the investors in the retail industry at an affordable price.

 “You don’t have to have so much money to be able to tap into the opportunities available in the capital market. For instance, with the government bond, the minimum investable amount is N10,000 and you can buy in subsequent amounts of N1,000.

“We have Collective Investments Schemes (CIS), we have the stocks that you can buy through the stockbrokers and those you can invest in with as little as 5,000 naira. So, you don’t necessarily have to have a lot of money to invest, all you need is to approach the stockbrokers. They can open an account for you and whatever you have you can pay into the account and give instructions in what kind of investments you want to make,” she explained.

She further said that the misconception that the capital market required bulk of investment funds has lead lots of Nigerians to embrace Ponzi schemes.

“The SEC is very interested in investor protection and that is why we have rules that the players must obey, and all these are channelled towards ensuring that our market is safe for investors.

“The smaller the investors the more he/she is protected. We don’t want any investor to go into the market and lose money that will not be good for our market.”

To protect retail investors from Ponzi schemes, SEC warned Nigerians in May 2019  to desist from investing money in investment schemes being operated by persons or organizations that were not registered to carry out fund management functions.