Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, on Tuesday in Abuja expressed the Federal Government’s concern over the perennial volatility of the Nigerian capital market, urging stakeholders to work towards deepening.
While calling for increased domestic participation in the nation’s capital market, he reiterated the government’s commitment towards building a vibrant market comparable to similar ones across the globe and contribute to national growth and development.
Prof. Osinbajo who spoke when members of the Capital Market Master Plan Implementation Council (CAMMIC), chaired by Olutola Mobolurin, visited him in Abuja, Tuesday, said a lot can be done “to ensure that our capital market is better than what it is now.”
He promised support to help CAMMIC achieve its plan for a stable market, acknowledging that “there is no way we can deepen our financial system without a vibrant capital market. We know we need foreign investors in our market, but most importantly we need to grow our domestic investors that are here to stay.”
Osinbajo said capital markets play a central role in economic development by mobilizing long term investment funds, adding that the present administration is interested in deepening the capital market. This, he stressed, will, in turn,, lead to a deepening of the financial market.
Speaking earlier, Mobolurin urged the Federal Government to pay more attention to the capital market, in view of its being the centre of any economy, just as regulation of the market is paramount given that it is confidence driven.
Mobolurin, therefore, canvassed for the setting up of a National Savings Committee to drive the process of fund mobilization among Nigerians and work on a robust savings initiative that can drive the growth of the economy.
He called for a holistic financial system review to ensure all of the components evolve simultaneously to drive the economic objectives of the present administration.
“We must find a way of growing the economy at a rate much higher than the population rate. One of the things we can do is to develop our own savings strategy and increase the savings level in the system so that we are not solely dependent on foreign investors” he said.
He listed some of the achievements of the council to include dematerialization, recapitalization, e-dividend mandate, financial literacy, National Savings Strategy, Streamlined Bond Issuance Progress, Access to alternative investments and Tax incentive programmes.
Others are enhancing commodities trading ecosystem, enhancing market liquidity and facilitate the establishment of a credit enhancement facility.
For the year 2019, Mobolurin disclosed that CAMMIC will embark on a review of the Master Plan, conduct an impact assessment of programmes and initiatives like e-dividend, dematerialization, Direct Cash Settlement among others, expansion of commodities through registered exchanges as well as the introduction of derivatives and related instruments.
Also speaking, Acting Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, (SEC), Ms Mary Uduk said the Commission and the market are working to make the capital market a major driver of economic growth and development.
Recall that the SEC launched a 10 year Capital Market Masterplan in November 2014, which became expedient, given that Nigeria had just emerged from a bubble which negatively impacted the performance and confidence in its capital market. A market-wide strategic blueprint became necessary also to, among other things, restore investor confidence, deepen the market, accelerate the growth of the capital market and help catalyse the emergence of Nigeria as a top 20 global economy.
This led to the setting up of CAMMIC is an advocacy group, meant to kick start the buying in of all the key stakeholders in the market, particularly at the executive, legislative and judicial level to mainstream the capital market plan, so that government will appreciate the whole essence of the capital market.

Photo caption: The Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, welcoming the Chairman, Capital Market Masterplan Implementation Council (CAMMIC), Olutola Mobolurin to his office with a handshake during the meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, July 9, 2019. Other members of the team are Acting Executive Commissioner, Operations, Securities and Exchange Commission; Isyaku Tilde (left); Acting Director-General, SEC, Ms Mary Uduk (second left); and Managing Director, Central Securities Clearing System Plc, Haruna Jalo-Waziri (middle).