Finance Minister Promises Commitment To Capital Market Growth

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed has said she is committed to strengthening Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to reposition the nation’s capital market to be at par with its peers globally.

The minister made the commitment in Abuja Monday, when she received the Revised Nigerian Capital Market Master Plan (2021-2025).

The plan was submitted to the minister by the Capital Market master plan implementation council led director-general of SEC, Lamido Yuguda.

She said the review of the master plan underscores the fact that capital market growth resonates with the current administration’s unwavering commitment to deepening and re-positioning the country’s financial markets as a key anchor to achieving a private sector led development of the economy as encapsulated in the National Development Plan objectives.

Ahmed said under her watch, the ministry of finance has supported the Capital Market Master Plan implementation efforts since inception, adding that the master plan, represents the collective aspirations of the capital market community which is focused on driving initiatives geared towards growing and deepening the market.

She said the initiatives are being implemented with the ultimate goal of accelerating the emergence of Nigeria as a top 20 global economy by the year 2025.

“Our capital market is growing and evolving. To sustain this growth and eventually transform to a world class capital market, transparency and investor confidence is key.

“Investor confidence will accelerate the growth of our market and increase both domestic and foreign investor participation. To this end, we will continue to support and strengthen the regulator to effectively do its job of regulating and developing the capital market.

“I see the capital market as an important driver of our economic growth objectives and we will continue to support efforts to position our market where it deserves to be – a capital market that will broaden access to economic prosperity by enabling the emergence of financially responsible citizens, accelerate wealth creation and wealth distribution, provide capital to small and medium scale enterprises, and catalyze housing finance,” she stated

Yuguda said the master plan document recommends a periodic review of the assumptions, goals and objectives of the Plan to better align it with current realities and innovations in the global financial system.

As part of the review, he said the Commission embarked on a comprehensive review of the Plan, driven by PriceWaterHouseCoopers with funding support from Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSDA).

The main objective of reviewing the Master Plan, he noted, is to produce an updated version of the document primarily to engage stakeholders on the current level of market development and opportunities for further capital growth; review and update the assumptions and vision of the CMMP and develop targets for the various thematic areas of the CMMP.

He said the revised master plan is designed to chart the strategic position and future direction of the capital markets, while providing both SEC and market participants clarity on the vision of the capital market and the road map required to facilitate a conducive business environment to encourage innovation, investment, growth and expansion of economic and employment opportunities in our country.