The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, has described the the nation’s capital market as crucial to Nigeria’s sustainable development.
Ahmed stated this in a keynote address at the Investing and Capital Market conference held on Thursday in Abuja,
She said: “We want a vision for a future Nigeria where the majority of Nigerians have been sustainably lifted out of poverty, and have access to fundamental services including education, health care, water supply and sanitation. A future where all are financially included, with affordable access to financial products and services. A future where we have left no one behind.
“Our capital market is crucial to actualizing this future, and to achieving the sustained, inclusive and equitable socio-economic growth that this government aims to achieve” she added.
The minister said the capital market created an investment window for the mobilization of long-term savings for investment as well as efficient pricing of financial instruments.
In addition, she noted that the market also provided a necessary platform through which the business sector and Government have been able to source for capital to expand their operations and provide public goods and services for the citizens.
She clarified further: “Therefore, we recognize the importance of maintaining a competitive, resilient and innovative capital market through, in part, the development of appropriate policies, and a strong regulatory and enabling environment, and continued implementation of the ten-year Capital Market Master Plan (2015 to 2025), aimed at positioning the Nigerian capital market for accelerated development of the national economy.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria, particularly the Federal Ministry of Finance reiterates its commitment towards building lasting, endurable, and increasingly more innovative capital market. I therefore, look forward to today’s deliberations and to your continued support in achieving inclusive and sustainable economic growth and prosperity”, Ahmed added.
In her remarks, Acting Director General of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms. Mary Uduk, said lack of good corporate governance had created a lot of issues in the corporate world, adding that such issues are some of the reasons why people are avoiding the capital market.
The investment expert explained that the capital market community had agreed that the issues that led to the 2008/2009 crisis would not be allowed to continue again.
She said: “That is why we have different Corporate Governance codes in place to ensure good corporate governance. SEC set the pace in 2003 with a code and renewed it in 2011. When we saw there were still gaps, we reviewed it in 2014 and came up with a scorecard.
“In pursuance of our goals of ensuring that the market we regulate is sound, we went ahead to do a lot of trainings with International Finance Corporation, IFC.
“The scorecard is a direct compliance with the code. Even though at the moment we are still doing a pilot, there is now a lot of compliance in terms of submissions. From January 2020, we will go to these companies to ascertain the veracity of their submissions”, Uduk added.
The Acting DG said the SEC codes were made mandatory because they are now in its Rules and Regulations, adding that it is now compulsory for companies to adhere to and there are provisions to punish violators.
She expatiated: “All hands need to be on deck to ensure we succeed on this one. Even operators know the disadvantage of not complying. When the market is down, they do not earn much. So they have decided to ensure that the right thing is done.
“We are hoping that since this is the only market we have, we all have to do the right thing in the interest of everyone”, Uduk stressed.
