The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has said, the Investments and Securities Bill (ISB) 2023, recently passed by the National Assembly(NASS) is geared to improve the capital market and provide more opportunities for investors.
Chief economist, SEC, Dr. Okey Umeano stated this in an interview in Abuja.
According to him, the ISB 2023 has updated the powers of the SEC as well as made provisions to encourage new products in the capital market as well as encourage development of the commodities ecosystem among others.
Umeano disclosed that the new Bill has amended some of the provisions around Ponzi schemes, illegal fund managers, and certain unwholesome practice in the market to ensure that these practices no longer happen.
“This bill is for everyone, not just investors. It is also to encourage issuers to be more active in the market. It also provides better opportunities for operators; it is a bill that works for everyone.
bill has a lot of differences, there are many things we have updated for instance we have updated the powers of the SEC to cover the new product and new areas,” he said.
He emphasised that the ISB also has provisions that encourages the commodity ecosystem which is a viable means of diversifying the nation’s economy away from crude oil especially given the various commodities available in the country.
“Nigeria is a commodity driven economy, we have oil, we have coal, and we have other minerals. We are blessed with agricultural production; we are able to make agricultural products in very large quantities. In fact, Agriculture employs the larger number of working populations of the country. Yet before now, we did not have organized commodity market, to aid this Agriculture.
“Successive government especially this present government have spent a lot of money to support Agriculture but then we a market. When you have a commodity market, it helps price discovery, it helps financing for things like agriculture and that is what we have done in this bill. The ISB has strengthened the capital market to be able to drive the commodities trading ecosystem. We have things around ware house receipts, collateral management, setting up commodities exchanges, other players in the commodity market among others,” he stated.
Umeano disclosed that the Bill also tries to align the capital market with the pension industry by providing that the director general(DG) of the National Pension Commission(PenCom) will become a board member of the SEC.
This he said, will ensure close relationship and will also help to attract more of the pensioner’s assets into the cattle market, which will also help in capital formation and aid economic development.
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