By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Securities and Exchange Commission has said it would strictly enforce all rules that guide the operations of the capital market so as to restore investors confidence.
The Director-General, SEC, Lamido Yuguda, said this at the first capital market committee meeting which was attended virtually by over 240 stakeholders in the capital market.
According to a statement by SEC Head of Corporate Communications, Mrs Efe Ebelo in Abuja on Sunday, the meeting marked the first interaction between the newly-inaugurated Executive Management team of the Commission and the capital market community.
At the meeting, the SEC DG assured market participants of the Commission’s collective commitment to continue implementing the ongoing initiatives of the Nigerian Capital Market Master Plan and other related initiatives targeted at developing our capital market.
He further promised to continuously seek ways of improving these initiatives, while efforts are being made to introduce new ones to the benefit of capital market stakeholders.
In order to increase the visibility and attractiveness of the capital market, he said the commission would work towards maintaining an environment that is enabled by the appropriate regulatory framework.
This, he noted, would be implemented through timely and affordable access to the capital market, zero tolerance for infractions, heightened investor confidence and awareness, innovative product development and good governance practices.
According to him,, “We need to restore investor confidence and attract the retail and young investor into the market.
“Thus, we will ensure strict enforcement of our rules and regulations, strengthen our enforcement regime and clamp down on illegal operators luring unsuspecting investors with various Ponzi Schemes.”
To support the Federal Government’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, he said the Commission set up the Capital Market Support Committee on Covid-19, headed by Mr. Ariyo Olushekun, to raise funds and offer various supports towards combating Covid-19.
With the support of various market participants, the SEC DG explained that the committee, on behalf of the Nigerian capital market, has so far donated five ambulances to various state governments as well as the Federal Capital Territory and the Presidential Task Force on Covid -19.
In addition, he emphasized that the committee has distributed several face masks, infra-red thermometers and other medical equipment, including food items.
Going forward, Yuguda said the Committee intends to develop a capital market sponsored Nigerian strategic healthcare infrastructure fund.
In furtherance of the initiative to infuse capital market education into the curriculum of Basic and Secondary schools, he said various trade-groups have supported the efforts of the Financial Literacy Technical Committee with the sum of N78.3m, out of which N34.7m had been expended.
The SEC Boss said based on report from the FLTC, a stand-alone curriculum on the capital market studies for Basic and Senior Secondary schools has been developed and infused into relevant carrier subjects.
He explained that this has been ratified by Joint Consultative Committee on Education and the National Council on Education, adding that the next phase of the Committee’s initiative is the development of teacher’s guide, printing of the teacher’s guide and its distribution.
