BY NKECHI NAECHE ESEZOBOR-–The Nigeria Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at the weekend announced it has suspended the regularisation deadline put in place for shareholders that opened accounts for the purchase of shares with different names.
Although, the commission also said that they are still reviewing the situation as there will not be any time line for it, adding that it will be open ended for now.
Briefing financial journalist, the Acting Director General Ms Mary Uduk, said this was parts of the outcome of the third quarter Capital Market Committee (CMC) that was held in Lagos on Thursday November 21, 2019.
According to her it will enable other shareholders that are having challenges with their details to come up and regularize their holdings, noting that, the commission have discovered that some shareholders are avoiding it due to the fear of EFCC.
“the Multiple Subscription Committee presented the status of its ongoing engagement with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Committee of Heads of Banking Operation to display multiple accounts regularization banners in the banking halls all over the country.
The Committee also reported that CMOs have commenced the filing of report on regularized accounts with the Commission, on a quarterly basis. Given the relevance of this exercise and the need to create more awareness, the Committee requested for an extension of the deadline of multiple accounts regularization”.
Other resolutions reached at the meeting includes, “Registrars are to discontinue the practice of requesting for confirmation of bank signature during the E-DMMS process. CMOs are to display awareness campaign banners of e-DMMS at their offices and Venue of Annual General Meetings (AGM). Capital market operators should also work with the Commission to share awareness information on their social media platforms”
The SEC boss noted pointed that the commission is to engage the National Pension Commission (PenCom) on modalities which would permit Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) to participate in Securities Lending. And to develop rules and regulations on warehouse receipts within the current legal framework.
Other Major Highlight of CMC Meeting
Between the 2nd CMC held in August and now, the Commission has organized and participated in a number of events of which we informed the market at the meeting.
1. Such events include our collaboration with the University of Lagos in organizing a two-day conference on “Leveraging the capital market for economic growth and development”, on September 11 and 12, 2019. The event served as a convergence for industry experts, the SEC and the academia to forge a partnership that would aid the conduct of relevant research towards innovative solutions in our market.
2. This was followed by the Commodities Round-Table held in October, 2019, with over 170 key stakeholders in attendance. This roundtable served as a platform to secure the buy-in of these stakeholders, as well as the perspective of policy makers towards improving the commodities ecosystem. As you are aware, Nigeria has a lot of potentials in the commodity space and the capital market can be used as a platform to achieve these.
3. Another key highlight of our activities within the period was the convening of the Inaugural West African Capital Market Conference with the theme “Positioning West Africa capital market to achieve sustainable and real economic growth through integration and sound regulation. The event which held from October 27-29, 2019 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, featured resource persons on infrastructure and sustainable financing, Capital Market Integration, FinTech, Investor Protection, amongst others.
4. In addition, we launched the FinTech Roadmap for the Nigerian Capital Market during the Nigeria FinTech Week in October 2019. The event buttressed the Commission’s resilience to adopt and guide the industry towards innovation.
5. Following an amendment to Rule 61 (2) of the SEC Rules, the Commission has issued directives to facilitate effective compliance with the amendments on operations of nominee accounts by capital market operators. We enjoin all CMOs to familiarize themselves and comply with this new rule.
6. To improve capital formation and investment from savings, we also informed the market that the Honorable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning has approved the composition of a National working group on Saving Scheme. The Inauguration of the group will be undertaken by the Honorable Minister in the near future.
7. In terms of our Investor Education efforts, you are aware of the initiative towards including Capital Market Studies in the curricula of Basic and Senior Secondary Schools. Having infused the capital market content into this curriculum, the next phase of our work is to develop the Teachers’ Guides. We have equally constituted a steering committee for the Universities’ curriculum.
8. I am also delighted to inform you of the publication of the latest edition of the Nigerian Journal of Securities Market. While we would ensure that hard copies are made available to you, soft copies of this edition as well as previous ones would be made available on the Commission’s website.
9. At the yesterday meeting, the various Technical Committees provided updates on their activities and I would like to provide you with some of the highlights.
10. In the presentation made by the Commodities Trading Ecosystem Committee, we were informed about the ongoing collaboration with the Standards Organization of Nigeria to review applicable standards as well as the schedule of a capacity building session for personnel of the Federal Ministries of Finance, Budget & Planning, Trade & Investment and Agriculture. The Committee is also having engagements with relevant corporates and state governments to secure their buy-in on current initiatives in the ecosystem. Going forward, the Committee is proposing to meet with the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) on the status of the Nigerian Commodities Exchange (NCX) and work with the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) to develop some agricultural-based financial instruments.
11. The Multiple Subscription Committee presented the status of its ongoing engagement with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Committee of Heads of Banking Operation to display multiple accounts regularization banners in the banking halls all over the country. The Committee also reported that CMOs have commenced the filing of report on regularized accounts with the Commission, on a quarterly basis. Given the relevance of this exercise and the need to create more awareness, the Committee requested for an extension of the deadline of multiple accounts regularization.
12. The presentation by the e-Dividend Committee showed that the number of shareholders enrolled on the e-DMMS platform has increased to 2,820,065 at the end of the 3rd Quarter of 2019. Further updates were given concerning the ongoing efforts at integrating the Direct Cash Settlement (DCS) and the e-DMMS mandate forms, as well as the engagement with the CBN on the inclusion of e-DMMS charges among allowable bank charges.
13. Also, the Non-interest Finance Committee presented the importance of granting the PFAs the permission to invest a given percentage of a willing contributor’s Retirement Savings Accounts in Non-Interest capital market products. Updates were equally given on the progress made in the collaboration with the Debt Management Office (DMO) to develop a short term non-interest instrument.
14. The meeting received further updates from the presentation of the report of the Market Liquidity Technical Committee, as well as the final report of the Block Chain and Virtual Assets Committee.
15. I would like to inform you that we had extensive discussions on these Technical Committees’ presentations and comments were also received on the presentations of Self Regulatory Organizations (SROs) and the Observer Groups.
