•Market Institute To Expand Operations
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), on Sunday expressed hope that the outcome of its two-day International Conference on Nigeria’s Commodities Market (ICNCM 2020), which opens on Monday, March 16, 2020, will make the much-desired impact and stimulate the nation’s capital market and enhance economic growth.
Acting Director-General of the commission, Ms Mary Uduk, also assured that experts already assembled and participants will brainstorm on what must be done to birth a vibrant commodities ecosystem in the country.
The conference, being organized by the SEC’s Technical Committee (TC) on Commodities Trading Ecosystem, comprises members drawn from various stakeholder groups in the commodities ecosystem. They include the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Financial Markets Dealers Quotations (FMDQ), the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), Bank of Agriculture (BOA), The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System (NIRSAL), Financial Systems Strategy (FSS 2020), AFEX Commodities Exchange Ltd and the Nigerian Commodity Exchange (NCX).
The commodities trading ecosystem in Nigeria, she noted, has come under the radar over the past couple of years, especially with the Federal Government’s intensified efforts at diversifying the economy and reducing overdependence on crude oil.
“A lot of investments have been channelled towards the commodities space, especially the agricultural commodities’ market space. Numerous programmes such as the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme, as well as the NEXIM Bank’s Export stimulation Fund, are some of the few deliberate efforts of the government to ensure food security and sufficiency in the country,” she noted.
The Acting DG added that the SEC seeks an efficient commodities’ exchange because the commodities sector of the capital market has remained dormant, which she stressed, is why the commission is leading other capital market stakeholders on capacity building and public enlightenment campaigns.
According to Uduk, “the Capital Market Master Plan did an analysis of where we are and where we want to be as the leading capital market in Africa and one of the areas is the commodities market which is very important, but one of the least developed. The Nigerian economy is mainly agrarian driven; all states of the federation have exportable quantities of commodities, and we have some of the highest grades in the world.
“The government wants to diversify to agriculture, and so we need to be able to export some of these commodities. If the farmers do very well, the earnings of the country will be boosted.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Capital Market Institute (NCMI) will operate from three centres across the country so as to offer excellent capital market education to stakeholders, and thereby help to deepen the Nigerian Capital Market.
Speaking during a meeting with the accreditation team from the Centre for Management and Development (CMD), Ms. Uduk, who was represented by Acting Managing Director of the institute, Ismaila Ville, said the accreditation will be beneficial to the NCMI and the capital market community at large.
The Institute, he continued, had previously been identified by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) as an accredited training provider (ATP) for the provision of global certification to capital market operators within Nigeria.
The vision of the SEC management, he continued, is for the NCMI to become a world-class training institute and the first amongst its peers, in furtherance of which the commission sought CMD accreditation to ensure professionalism in the market.
The SEC, he told the visitors, “has a dual mandate to regulate and develop the Nigerian capital market. In furtherance of its developmental mandate, the Nigerian Capital Market Institute (NCMI) was established in 2004 to promote human capacity development and bridge the knowledge gap in the financial services sector with particular reference to the capital markets.”
The SEC boss expressed excitement at the accreditation which is coming 16 years after the institute was established and expressed hope that the NCMI will remain a catalyst for capital market growth in Africa.
“As you may be aware the NCMI has been in operation since 2004. So it is a great achievement for us today to be accredited as an Institute,” he stressed.
Photo caption: Head, Accreditation Department, Centre for Management Development (CMD), Francis Binuyo, in a handshake with Acting Managing Director, Nigerian Capital Market Institute, Ismaila Ville, during a Meeting between NCMI and CMD in Abuja, weekend. With them is the Head of Marketing, Consultancy Research and Mobilization, NCMI,
Mrs Saadatu Faruk.
