SEC set to unveil 10-year capital market master plan

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says it has concluded plans to inaugurate a 10-year capital market master plan aimed at ensuring the guided growth of the Nigerian capital market in November.

According to a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday by the commission’s head of public relations, Mr Yakubu Olayele, the master plan, meant to cover the 10-year period from 2015 to 2025, is aimed at increasing the depth of the capital market and increasing foreign direct investment.

The statement quoted SEC’s executive commissioner, corporate services, Zakawanu Garuba, as making the disclosure at the ongoing International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) annual meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Garuba said the master plan would help to diversify the sources of capital and enable all concerned parties in the country’s capital market to plan ahead.

He revealed the capital market committee, a body of all capital market regulators, operators and stakeholders, inaugurated three committees last year to achieve its 10-year master plan.

The committees, according to him, are master plan committee, non-interest committee and the literacy committee.

Garuba listed key areas of the committees’ work to include investor protection and education, professionalism, product innovation and expansion of the role of the capital market in economic development.

He said the long-term development committee had considered relevant factors that impact market growth and had developed strategies for robust governance for improved efficiency, transparency and enhancement of the market stability.

“The primary reason for coming up with those committees is to see how we can move the market forward because in an attempt to deepen the market we realised that some of the terms of reference for those committees are basically needed for that,” he said.

“I think it is the plan of the current board of SEC to make sure that is realised. We have received reports from the various committees last month and we do hope that during the retreat in November, everything will be collated and it will be the basis of our operation in the next 10 years.”