By 
The outgoing Acting Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Mary Uduk, recently presented her scorecard, stating that under her leadership, the register of capital market operators was sanitized. In a statement in Abuja, SEC stated that the cleaning up exercise of the records of registered market operators, embarked upon under the management of Uduk, led to the cancellation of registration of 84 inactive operators, as well as giving 94 others a pre-notice of cancellation of their registration.
The commission further noted that since steering the affairs of SEC as Acting Director-General, Uduk had introduced a number of strategic initiatives including the development of the Roadmap for a vibrant Commodities Trading Ecosystem, and ongoing implementation of same; collaboration with the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) on the infusion of capital market studies into the curriculum of basic and senior secondary schools.
These were revealed in a document obtained in Abuja, detailing the various strides of SEC under Uduk. The document added that SEC had similarly been engaged in the formulation of rules on Green Bonds to promote the issuance of debt instruments for the financing of projects with positive environmental impact.
It said, “Similarly, the SEC has revealed that with over 70 per cent of its ten-year plan (2015-2025) initiatives already started, the plan has the potential to facilitate the implementation of the nation’s economic agenda.”
The document explained that the SEC is guided by a ten-year (2015 to 2025) Capital Market Master Plan which is a collective vision for the capital market and the role it should play in positioning the capital market for accelerated development of the national economy. The Plan, according to the document, was built around the four strategic themes of driving and facilitating capital raising for sustainable national development and transformation of Nigeria’s priority economic sectors, thereby effectively contributing to the national economy and aligning market structure to requirements of the economy as well as increase scale, size and professionalism of all stakeholders.
The plan, the document noted, was also aimed at ensuring competitiveness by establishing practices to improve transparency, efficiency and liquidity and to attract sustainable interest in the capital market from domestic as well as foreign investors and participants as well as creating an enabling and facilitative oversight and regulatory framework supportive of the deepening and development of the Nigerian capital market.
According to the document, “Following rigorous verification by accounting firms, the Commission was able to release the list of compliant operators. It also began cleaning up the records of registered market operators, especially by giving 94 inactive CMOs pre-notice of cancellation of their registration while registration of 84 of them was cancelled.” The document explained further that in order to achieve the Master Plan initiatives, certain laws needed to be reviewed, adding, “therefore, a conference was held in conjunction with the National Assembly to look at the legal challenges facing the Nigerian capital market. “This culminated in the setting up of three (3) law review committees to review relevant laws such as the Investments and Securities Act (ISA), Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), Trustee Investment Act, Warehouse Receipt Bill etc. “The interim reports of the committees were exposed to the market for comments.
The resulting documents formed the capital market consensus on the status of the review of the laws.” Continuing, the document said, “In order to strengthen the collaboration and integration of Capital Markets across the region, SEC Nigeria along with SEC Ghana and Conseil Régional de L’Epargne Publique et des Marchés Financiers (CREPMF) continued to promote integration through the West African Securities Regulators Association (WASRA).
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