Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria, Dr Emomotimi Agama, has hinted of plans by the commission to expand the capital market education curriculum for Nigerian universities.
The investment expert, who gave the hint during the inauguration of a committee tasked with reviewing the curriculum on securities and investment management, listed the proposed additional topics as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, financial technology, and others.
According to the Director-General, the National Universities Commission (NUC) has already approved the curriculum for the tertiary institutions.
He said: “Due to new developments in fintech, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and others, there is a need to expand the curriculum to accommodate the new trends. It is an important time and we want to latch in to be able to teach Nigerians, especially the young people, about the capital market. In light of this, the commission has set up a committee to review and enrich the existing curriculum to reflect these advancements.
“It is sad that people do not have a full grasp of capital market issues. We must do everything to share knowledge and educate people. We want to be the best capital market among nations and that can only be possible due to the superiority of our knowledge. You are well placed to do this being in the Ivory Towers and I thank you for accepting to serve as we look forward to a robust discussion”, Agama added.
Agama said that the terms of reference of the committee, to be chaired by Professor Uche Uwaleke of Capital Market Studies at Nasarawa State University, included a review of the NUC curriculum on securities and investment management to include the non-interest capital market, the commodities ecosystem, the derivatives market, sustainable finance; and capital market regulations; expanding the ‘Introduction to Cryptocurrency’ section of the NUC curriculum to reflect current developments.; and developing a standard capital market studies curriculum to be used by Nigerian universities and other tertiary institutions.
Members of the committee are Prof. Augustine Agom of the Ahmadu Bello University; Prof. Seth Akutson of the Kaduna State University; Prof Chuke Nwude of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, and Dr. Akeem Oyewole of Marble Capital Ltd.
Others are Prof Oladele Akinyomi of the Mountain Top University; Head of the Market Development Department of SEC, Mrs Ojone Kabir; Head of Economic Research and Intelligence of SEC, Dr Hassan Suleiman and Mrs Jessica Ogwuche of the Financial Inclusion and Investor Education Department of SEC, who is the secretary of the committee.
In his post-inauguration remarks, the chairman of the committee thanked the SEC’s management for considering the members of the committee fit and trusted to carry out the assignment.
Uwaleke said: “We know that part of our challenge is because our retail investor base is shallow in relation to our population and one way to change the narrative is through capital market literacy. We as lecturers can attest to the fact that capital market literacy within the academic environment is low and I think tackling that is one low-hanging fruit.
“I am aware that the DG and others have been trying to increase the level of awareness with various programmes like quizzes, essays, investor clinics and others, but for us to make more impact, we need to focus on tertiary institutions and that is why I think what we are doing is very crucial”, he added.
The investment expert assured the Director-General and management of the SEC that the committee members would assiduously work to ensure that the objectives of its composition were achieved.
