The House of Representatives Committee on Capital Markets and other Institutions has assured the Securities and Exchange Commission of its readiness to support it with enabling laws to aid the growth of the capital market.
The Chairman of the Committee, Babangida Ibrahim, during a meeting with the new management of the SEC in Abuja, said with the issues the nation was facing as a result of the Coronavirus Disease, the capital market had become an option that could save the economy from collapse.
Ibrahim said, “The meeting with the new management of SEC has been very fruitful. We had discussions on some of the challenges the market is presently facing.
“We have all agreed that there is need to work together to substantially reduce these challenges. These challenges include policy issues, legislative issues and can also be operational issues.
“But most important is that we have agreed that there is need to look inwards to see how best we can boost confidence in the market and make sure that the process of investing in the capital market is as simple as possible.”
“We want to see at the end of the day that there is easy entry and exit and that the processes are as simple as possible. People should be able to buy and sell at their convenience without any complexity in the process. You can invest in the market today and decide to divest tomorrow; you get your little profit and move on.
“We all agreed that these type of discussions would be as regular as possible. We will continue to exchange ideas and be sincere in our approach to ensure that we bring a new lease of life to the Nigerian capital market,” he said.
Ibrahim, therefore, urged investors to continue to be patient, as the issues were worked out to further boost confidence in the market, adding that the National Assembly would note the key areas that require amendment like the laws, policies, procedures among others and work on them.
“We wish to tell investors that they should continue to be patient with us as we work out these issues to boost their confidence. We are aware of their plight, especially their experiences in the recent past, but we will do our best to restore confidence in the market. We assure investors that with the new management at the SEC, we are going to take the capital market to the next level,” he added.
In his remarks, Director General of SEC, Mr. Lamido Yuguda commended the committee for its interest in making the capital market transparent and more investor-friendly.
Yuguda said, “This committee is very important to us at the SEC. We have had very useful discussions with the chairman and he has assured the SEC of the cooperation and support of this committee as we set out to discharge our responsibilities.
“The National Assembly and the SEC are very passionate about the same things like investor protection and making the capital market processes less cumbersome, so that investors can access their monies more readily than what obtains at the moment. We hope to work together to achieve a capital market that we would all be proud of.”
