The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria has identified investment in and deployment of financial technology (fintech) as crucial in attracting youth participation in the nation’s fast growing capital market and deepening its base.
The commission’s Director-General, Mr. Lamido Yuguda, explained that this was why the commission had been encouraging operators to develop the right technologies and solutions needed to attract the youths to the capital market in the past few years.
Yuguda, who made this remark to commemorate the Global Money Week 2023 scheduled to hold from March 20-26 worldwide, noted that currently the average age of account holders in the equities market was over 50 years.
According to him, this is not desirable for the sustainable growth of the capital market in any nation because when young people are not participating in any market, the market is doomed to fail.
Yuguda clarified: “That is why we are improving our Know Your Customers; we are improving so many things to make it easier for them. That is why we are introducing fintech.
“We are allowing this fintech to come because we see fintech as an important gateway for youths to enter the market. We are conscious of that and we are working towards it”, he added.
Yuguda recalled that the commission had been implementing various initiatives to ensure that products and offerings in the market were accessible to both the young and the old in order to deepen the market.
He pointed out today young people preferred to do things on their phones, adding that “if you have to fill a stack of forms manually young people won’t do it. We want to make investing in the capital market a fun experience.”
Speaking on the commission’s sustained efforts to promote financial literacy among the children and youths in the country, the Director-General harped on the increasing need for Nigerian children and youths to develop sound financial habits, knowledge, attitude and behaviour from their early years and promised that the SEC would help them to know how to manage their finances and be empowered to make better financial decisions for their future.
Elaborating further on the theme of this year’s event, Yuguda said: “Plan your money, plan your future’ is the official theme of GMW 2023. This theme aims at raising awareness about the importance of adopting a responsible, informed, and forward-looking approach to making financial decisions.
“It also recognizes that future individual financial well-being is strictly linked to the health of the planet and society as a whole.
“This year’s Global Money Week 2023 is a great opportunity for everyone to engage children, youth and young people in activities around the theme”, the investment expert added.
The Global Money Week is a yearly event organized by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) International Network on Financial Education with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) coordinating the event in Nigeria.
