ABUJA – The guidelines released by the Securities and Exchange Commission prior to the banking recapitalization exercise has been described as one of the steps that has made the process more transparent and easily accessible for Nigerians to participate in.
Director General of the SEC, Dr Emomotimi Agama stated this at the Commission’s head office in Abuja weekend.
Agama said the present Management of the Commission is interested in integrity and transparency of processes, and that is why it provided clarity before the recapitalization exercise commenced, which is a major ingredient in a transparent capital market.
According to him, “That clarity came out of the regulations that the SEC brought up to support the banking recapitalization. The banking capitalization is a very important step by the government to strengthen the banks and indeed provide capacity for the banks to lend to the real sector for us to drive the economy, as provided for by the Renewed Hope Agenda Initiative and the design of the President to turn out a $1 trillion economy.
“And so it was important that all institutions that are concerned with this activity, come together and provide a needed guidance for the banks to be able to run the programme. This is about the second time that the SEC will be tested in its capacity to be able to handle this. The first was in 2004 as you are aware, during the Soludo recapitalization exercise, the SEC was tested, and we came out of the test positive, this time around, it will not be different”.
The SEC Boss said the processes could only get better as the Commission has learnt a few lessons from the previous exercise, adding those lessons have led to creating an environment that makes it seamless, including the introduction of the guidelines, and the needed technology to help deal with it.
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“So the guidelines, as it were, have actually brought about stability, transparency to the recapitalization process and public offerings have increased. And of course, you see the interest being galvanized by the actions of the SEC in trying to make sure that this is a success.
“And I can tell you without doubt, the information we have received thus far shows that we are actually on the right course, and we are happy that that is happening. We’ll continue to give support to the Central Bank of Nigeria and to every institution that understands the value and the premise of the capital market. The capital market is indeed the barometer of the economy. And the SEC at this juncture is ready to live up to that bidding. I want a more sustainable industry”, he added.
Dr. Agama said the Commission is cooperating with the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Federal Inland Revenue Service as well as the Office of the National Security Adviser to ensure that there is a safe environment for investments to thrive with special focus on attracting the youth populace to the market.
He stated that youth empowerment is a cardinal objective of the President in line with the Renewed Hope agenda and that is why the SEC has to embrace innovation to make the capital market attractive to them adding that the Commission will continue to guide these enterprising youths to unleash their potentials in the area of Fintech.
“And it is important that we understand that we are an emerging economy, and being an emerging economy, the statistics and the principles that exist within other economics do not exist in ours. However, we are peculiar, so contextually, we need to do certain things to push the envelope. What are those things that we need to do to push the envelope?
“Education is critical. Sometimes we think that we need to put in policies first. No, the first thing that we need to do is educate people, get them to understand the value of what we are speaking to. Again, I commend the president, because he has always hammered on the need to redistribute wealth. How do you distribute wealth? You can only redistribute wealth, mostly right now through privatization, through listing where more persons are welcome to the table”, he explained.
