BY GABRIAL ESEZOBOR—-Newly appointed Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Mary Uduk, at the weekend re-assured investing public and operators that the commission is committed to deepening the capital market.
She disclosed this while briefing financial reporters on the outcome of the post Capital Market Committee (CMC) meeting in Lagos, adding that her team will also ensure that the existing master plan currently being executed by the market apex body is followed to its logical conclusion.
She said “the commission is focused and will not derail in its assignment to grow the equities market to the delight of both local and foreign investors.”
Speaking further on investor confidence, she said that none of those promoting cryptocurrencies has been recognized or authorized by it or other regulatory agencies in Nigeria to mobilze deposit from the public or provide any investment or other financial service within or outside Nigeria.
On increase of delisting by public companies by NSE she said; “This poses a threat to the growth and development of the market in view of the fact that quite a number of them are highly capitalized companies. We are expecting the committee on listings would come up with strategies to attract new listings”.
She added that to ensure that investors are not shortchange, ” We have extended the forbearance to shareholders that have multiple subscriptions with multiple accounts to September 2018. Registrars have acknowledged that investors have started coming forward but we still have challenges.”
The forbearance relates to investors who subscribed to public offers, especially during the era when the Federal Government sold its stake in state-owned entities and got them listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). This took place under the Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation (TCPC) led by Ambassador Hamza Zayyad and continued under the Bureau of Public Enterprices (BPE).
