What SEC Will Do To Make Capital Market More Profitable For Investors—DG

The Securities and Exchange Commission has unveiled strategies to unlock the potentials of the capital market thereby making investors to become more profitable this year.

Part of the plan is to organize a capital market conference to launch a revised version of the 10-year Capital Market Masterplan in 2022 to reflect the dynamism of the market and developments in FinTech among others.

The Director General of SEC, Mr. Lamido Yuguda, stated this in Abuja in a New Year Message.

Against the backdrop of marginal economic recovery in 2021, Nigeria’s stock market recorded a slowdown in growth but the performance indices remained in positive territories.

The NGX market capitalisation which shows value of the investments on the stock market, gained over N1.24trn to close the year 2021 at N22.3trn from N21.1trn at the close of trading in the year 2020.

The SEC DG stated that as the 2022 fiscal period commences, the Commission is confident that the results of the various initiatives implemented will begin to gradually manifest, spurring developments in many aspects of the market.

He expressed the hope that as the restrictions of Covid-19 and its variants are eased up, the capital market will witness renewed confidence expected to introduce fresh investments from domestic and foreign investors.

According to Yuguda, “As we expect improvements in both economic and capital market activities, we must remain committed to developing the market in line with the 10-year Master Plan.

“Some of the key initiatives to be pursued in 2022 are the repeal of the Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 2007 and passing of the Investment and Securities Bill 2021 to align the enabling law with the realities and trends in capital market regulation and practice in Nigeria.

“In conjunction with the NASD Platform, we will provide the necessary incentives and support to attract Small and Medium Enterprises to get listed. Already, Rules on Crowdfunding to encourage new funding sources for the SMEs have been developed.

“The SEC will continue the enhancement of the existing regulatory framework guiding the operations of the market by keeping pace with the evolving changes in market practices, especially with the advent of Financial Technology and digital assets.”

Yuguda said the Commission would improve coordination amongst stakeholders, such as the National Assembly, CBN, PENCOM, CAC, NAICOM, DMO and FIRS to create synergies and further improve upon its effectiveness towards ensuring that the objectives of realising the Capital Market Masterplan are met.

The SEC DG also disclosed that the Commission will carry out advocacy efforts to the relevant government agencies, such as the NNPC Ltd and Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources on listing of shares of the NNPC Ltd.

Also, he stated that policies would be championed to incentivize companies, like the new Dangote Refineries to offer its shares to the public and list the shares on any of the SEC-registered platforms.

He said, “The SEC will continue with the sensitization programmes and strong capacity building initiatives on Non-Interest Capital Markets products and services in order to attract sub-nationals and corporate issuances to this market segment.

“We also plan to provide extra support to the registered commodities trading platforms to complement government’s renewed diversification efforts in agriculture and carry out workshops to deepen the Commodities Trading Ecosystem”.