The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria has ordered all Capital Market Operators (CMOs) to state their compliance level and ensure all tradable instruments are registered in line with the Investments and Securities Act (ISA) 2025 latest by January 2026.
The Director-General of SEC, Dr. Emomotimi Agama, who gave this charge at the commission’s Journalists’ Academy 2025 with the theme “The ISA 2025 and The Future of Nigeria’s Capital Market: Innovation, Protection, and Growth” held on Wednesday in Lagos
Agama said anyone selling a tradable instrument must identify with the commission and ensure its registration within the period.
The Director-General, who was represented at the forum by the Commissioner of Operations, Mr Bola Ajomale, said the ISA 2025 would serve as a powerful foundation for the capital market Nigeria needs and deserves.
He explained: “If we get this right, ISA 2025 will serve as a powerful foundation for the capital market Nigeria needs and deserves: deep, efficient, innovative, and globally competitive.
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“The ISA 2025 is more than a replacement for the 2007 Act. It is a forward-looking instrument designed to reposition Nigeria’s capital market for a rapidly changing world”, the Director-General stressed.
He further clarified that the reform had strengthened the commission’s capacity to protect investors, empower market operators and align Nigeria with global best practice while addressing uniquely Nigerian challenges.
Agama said: “One of the most transformative aspects of the ISA 2025 is the clarity it brings to the mandate of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“For the first time, the Act explicitly sets out the regulatory objectives, functions, and powers of the Commission including acting in the public interest, protecting investors, maintaining fair and transparent markets, preventing unlawful practices, reducing systemic risk, and supporting capital formation”, he added.
According to him, this clarity strengthens regulatory authority and enhances institutional accountability as well as eliminates the ambiguities that previously complicated enforcement actions and improves the alignment of the SEC’s work with national economic goals.
Agama said the Act expanded the commission’s investigative capacity not only over regulated entities, but also over unrelated third parties where necessary for enforcement, thereby closing a major loophole that hindered previous investigations into market abuse and complex financial schemes.
He noted that such provisions indicated that the SEC was no longer limited by outdated definitions or narrow supervisory boundaries but now has modern tools to protect the integrity of the market.
The investment expert said the Act represented a collective resolve to modernise our capital-market architecture, attributing the reform to sundry factors, including the rise of digital trading, fintech platforms and virtual assets, the inadequacies of the previous Act in addressing Ponzi schemes, systemic risks, and new financing structures, among others.
Agama maintained that the need for stronger alignment with IOSCO standards and the imperative to deepen Nigeria’s capital market as a tool for national development necessitated its review.
The SEC boss said: “One of the most transformative aspects of the ISA 2025 is the clarity it brings to the mandate of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“For the first time, the Act explicitly sets out the regulatory objectives, functions, and powers of the commission including acting in the public interest, protecting investors, maintaining fair and transparent markets, preventing unlawful practices, reducing systemic risk, and supporting capital formation.
“This clarity strengthens regulatory authority and enhances institutional accountability. It eliminates the ambiguities that previously complicated enforcement actions and improves the alignment of the SEC’s work with national economic goals”, he added.
