Nigeria and Ghana’s Securities and Exchange Commissions have signed a renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in their joint efforts to strengthen market integration and create better opportunities for economic prosperity in the two countries and by extension, the West African subregion.
Speaking during the signing ceremony in Accra at the weekend, Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria, Mr. Lamido Yuguda recalled that the two countries had enjoyed a long period of progressive and mutually beneficial brotherhood and partnership with same applying to both institutions which resulted in the first MoU in 2003.
According to the investment market regulator, the relationship since 2003 paved the way for the signing of the MoU, and that the enduring relationship between the commissions’ jurisdictions is more amplified by the fact the countries have the largest markets in the West African sub-region and it will only be good foresightedness that capital market regulators take advantage of this to boost investments and prosperity of the people and the economies.
Yuguda explained that in addition to its inherent benefits, the revised MOU will usher in an era of strengthened strategic cooperation and mutual support in the regulation of the countries’ capital markets towards the ultimate objective of enhancing their efficiency, transparency, depth, strength and indeed, global competitiveness.
He pointed out that in the spirit of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and what nations in the region are hoping to achieve on a wider scale with WASRA, the collaboration would be a good pedestal for future and wider collaborations with other neighbors in the sub-region and beyond.
The Director-General said that with the revised MoU, both countries had developed a robust and inclusive document that is all-encompassing and reflective of current trends.
He stressed that the goal of the West African capital markets integration programme was the creation of an enabling environment for cross-border securities transactions and the integration of all capital markets jurisdictions in the ECOWAS region.
The Director-General further clarified: “It will therefore be equally expected that we develop a tool of cooperation that enables our two institutions to effectively police our respective markets and ensure that the standards of regulation set out by IOSCO are sustained, and where possible, improved upon.
“However, without the readiness of all concerned, the lofty aims of the programme may as well continually remain a dream. It goes to say, unequivocally, that this goal can only be achieved seamlessly when all member states of ECOWAS come on board and actively commit to achieving the noble objectives of the enhanced collaborative structure that these nature of agreements enable”, he added.
Yuguda added that both the SEC Ghana and SEC Nigeria, desirous of achieving these ideals, have taken the lead by example by driving this project in the sub-region while hopefully aiming to someday expand its coverage beyond the sub-regional frontiers onto other parts of the continent of Africa.
In his remarks, Director General of SEC Ghana, Rev. Daniel Tetteh said that the commissions were ready to work together and develop the potentials of the capitalmarket by examining issues and exploring ways to resolve them to make the capital markets work better.
Tetteh said: “This is a good framework that will benefit both countries and the sub region. If you want to go far, it is better to go along with others and that is why we always have discussions on co-operation in the capital market. We had an MoU in 2003 which centred on collaboration and leveraging the potentials of the capital markets in the sub region. We are better off when we pull together to attain the potentials of our capital markets.
“Some progress has been made in the past but we are not yet where we want to be, we could do more. Ghana and Nigeria can push forward in ways that will bring about the mutual benefits of leveraging the capital market. We need to have our markets open to each other so that we can achieve more and then attain one big capital market”, he added.
