The House of Representatives Committee on Finance has commended the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) management on decisive steps taken in ensuring that it attains fiscal sustainability in the nation’s capital market regulatory agency.
The Chairman of the committee, Hon. James Faleke, who gave the commendation during the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) interactive session with the commission’s management on Tuesday, noted that measures by the management to improve the commission’s revenue were yielding positive results.
The lawmaker said: “Last year when you came here, we challenged you to look inwards and return the SEC to sustainability and I am happy you have done that and that you are living up to expectations. I want to commend you for your efforts thus far, while also admonishing you to work harder”.
Earlier in his presentation before the committee, the commission’s Director General, Mr. Lamido Yuguda, pointed out that 2020 and 2021 were particularly difficult years for the commission as its revenues could not sustain the expenditures.
He clarified: “When we came on board, it was very difficult but we assured the National Assembly that we were going to take certain actions to make this deficit a thing of the past and our story this year is that we have actually turned the corner.
“If you look at our 2021 and 2020, compare with the 2022 budget and the 6 months in 2022 you will see that there is an actual improvement in the way we manage the finances of the Commission.
“It shows our budget for 2022 and the actual out time for the first half of that year. You can see that we projected a deficit of N1.6 billion, but as at the end of the first half, we have a surplus of about N2.5bn”, Yuguda added.
He explained that the presentation was a summary of the efforts the current management of the commission made over the past few years to reposition the commission on the path of fiscal sustainability.
Yuguda told the lawmakers that the SEC had fulfilled its promise to reduce personnel costs in the commission by offering some top staff a voluntary exit package, which some accepted.
He said: “Mr. Chairman we were top heavy and we said before this committee that we had a plan to offer a voluntarily early exit to some of our top personnel and I am happy to report that at the end of last year we offered this scheme and quite a number of our staff took the offer and we were able to substantially reduce our work force by almost 30%.
Yuguda further disclosed that although the Commission generated more revenue when the economy was buoyant, stressing that due to the current slowdown in the economy there is the need to cut cost to ensure prudence in financial management.
While admitting that the commission has been operating under very difficult circumstances since it is currently superintending over a market that was affected by the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, he assured that steps are being taken to ensure that the fortunes of the SEC continues to improve.
The Director General said: “If we go through the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework which we started last year, if we look at 2022 and 2023, you will see that we have worked on our expenditure and the deficit is now turning into a surplus.. We, therefore, need the support of all to engineer the kind of transition we are thinking of at the SEC.”
