As part of enhancing its role of investor protection, Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), at the weekend, reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring that only fit and proper individuals operate in country’s capital market.
According to Dr. Emomotimi Agama, its Director-General, the SEC emphasized that market operators engaging in unscrupulous activities would not escape punishment.
It is important, he said, that as a form of self-regulation, operators “are aware beforehand that if you do what is not right, the SEC will bring you out to the wall to say that you do not have character, because the very ethics of regulating or of registering a securities market operator is in the principle of the fit and proper person’s test.”
A fit and proper person’s test, he explained, “means that you satisfy all of the requirements that have been laid down in the Investments and Securities Act 2007 and in other regulations that the SEC has brought out to make sure that this happens.
“Disclosures by public companies will be very, very essential in making sure that the investor has enough information to make decisions.
“If information is not provided, then that will be against the rules and regulations of the SEC and indeed, the ISA,” Agama stressed.
As such, he continued, the task before the commission clearly “is getting people to understand that there is no hiding place anymore for anybody that has an intention to defraud Nigerians and to defraud anybody that is investing in this market.”
The SEC DG assured that investor protection is a fundamental principle of the Commission, as clearly outlined in the ISA 2007 as objectives of securities regulation in Nigeria, with market development as a twin priority.
He emphasized that for any market to thrive, investor protection must remain a top priority, asserting that the commission’s commitment to ensuring that all market participants understand its sacred responsibility.
The SEC leadership which has been entrusted with this duty by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will carry out the task effectively, even as he reminded that “every investor in Nigeria is under the cover of the SEC as long as the person operates within the Nigerian capital market.”
For him therefore, “the year 2025 is a year where we say that there is zero tolerance for any activity that does not fall within the laws of the Investments and Securities Act 2007.
“We are excited that the National Assembly has passed the new Investment and Securities Act and we are earnestly waiting for the President’s assent as the Bill is going through an administrative process to get to the President, to get it assented to.
“And that alone also signifies our intention to make sure that everyone that is investing in this market, or intends to invest in this market has a cover. That cover runs across so many lines, particularly, let me mention that Ponzi schemes will no longer be a place where people will be factoring, where people will be interested in, because the penalties in the new ISA you know, towards people that are engaged in Ponzi scheme is stiff enough to deter them,” he stressed further.
Beyond that, the SEC Director-General emphasized the importance of compliance and disclosure, describing them as fundamental objectives of securities regulation. He urged both existing and prospective market participants to work closely with the Commission to foster the development of the market.
“And so what you have been seeing most recently by the revocation of licenses, by the suspension of operators, and, of course, by our follow up to operators that are not registered with the SEC is only a tip of the iceberg as to what we intend to do in the year 2025. We believe strongly that a protected investor is a powerful investor. And we will do everything within the powers of the SEC and the Nigerian law to make sure that we deter unscrupulous persons who are involved in trying to defraud Nigerian investors,” Agama added.
