The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria has called on the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) for collaboration in its sustained efforts to grow the nation’s equities market and improve its contributions to the economy.
The Director-General of the commission, Mr. Lamido Yuguda, solicited the group’s support when a team from the NESG visited the SEC’s headquarters for the purposes of exploring ways of collaborating towards the development of the economy.
Yuguda stressed that the capital market can actually contribute more in the areas of provision of necessary infrastructure for the country and support the government in its developmental efforts.
He said: “Our collective economic power is bigger than the government and, in many countries, you find out that the capital market is actually funding the government. When you save, the finance is used to create economic value that actually enhances your standard of living and this is a win-win. You get financial returns and also get utility from the investments and this is actually achievable.”
The Director General described the collaboration with the NESG as desirable for national development as both could synergize to contribute more to developmental efforts of government in critical areas.
Yuguda told the NESG’s team that “on the capital market, it is a welcome development that we are talking with the NESG for there is something that really needs to happen in this country. When you look at our policy environment, in many areas it is not conducive for the return of capital to investors and we are working hard to tackle this.
“We all pay for the services no one is getting the services for free, but when we move on our roads, we say no we do not want to pay for it. In other countries people pay for their roads and they are happy doing that, because the roads are good.
“We need to have collaboration with a group like NESG. Once we are able to put things right, investors will be willing to put in money and there will be returns”, the investment expert added.
In his remarks, the NESG Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Laoye Jaiyeola, expressed serious concern that the banking sector was being over stressed and advised governments and corporate entities to explore the opportunities in the capital market for their funding needs.
He said: “The securities market needs to take the bull by the horn otherwise we are going to be in perpetual debt as a Nation and that will not help us.
“That is one of the reasons we say let’s re-engage, how can we get an Investments and Securities Act that will ensure that the needed funding for development in Nigeria is given priority and then we can fund Nigeria for a longer term.
“The short-term funding cannot help us; we need to begin to move to long-term. We are passionate about it and we need to raise these funds for the needed development funding for Nigeria”, Jaiyeola stressed.
