The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria has promised The Gambian financial system authorities necessary assistance in their current initiatives aimed at boosting their nation’s capital market.
The SEC Executive Commissioner Operations, Mr. Dayo Obisan, made the promise when he received a team from Central Bank of The Gambia on a study visit to the commission’s Zonal Office in Lagos.
Obisan told The Gambian team that the SEC Nigeria was making efforts to attract more Nigerians to the capital market, adding that one of such steps is the recently launched 10-Year Capital Market Master Plan.
He expatiated: “We are doing a couple of things in Nigeria, just some few days ago we just re-launched our revised capital market master plan. Other than the enabling law that we have, the capital market master plan is a 10-year document which we worked with in the last few years.
“Within this period, we realised that a lot of things had changed and there was the need to make some additions and subtractions to the plan. We needed to adjust and update the document to align with current realities for example when the plan was done things like digital assets were not really in the front burner.
“But today, digital assets, non interest capital market products are taking more prominent seats in financing. These I am sure would also be of interest to you as well given the demographics of your country”, Obisan added.
Commenting on the menace of illegal fund managers operating in the capital market, he noted that though the challenge was not peculiar to Nigeria that the commission had put some measures in place in its quest to ensure that Nigerians are not fleeced of their hard earned money by these illegal outfits.
He clarified: “Just as you may have it in the Gambia, we also have our own share of battles with Ponzi schemes, people trying to defraud others of their hard earned money. They are everywhere.
“And this always happens when there is despair or lack of hope; it does not mean one nation is worse than the other. But the reason why we are regulators or an upholder of the law is to deter and minimize such effect. Here in Nigeria we are working hard to ensure that they are not allowed to thrive”, Obisan added.
The Executive Commissioner told The Gambian team that the promoters of these unscrupulous schemes pose as operators in the capital market to defraud investors of their money with mouth-watering promises of return on investments.
He pointed out that the deceptive offers had made it difficult for investors to differentiate between genuine and false investment opportunities.
Obisan maintained that as part of its efforts to deal decisively with fraudsters in the nation’s investment space, the Commission was working to ensure investors are aware of the nefarious activities through investor education programmes.
