Photo Caption: Chairman, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Section on Business Law, Olumide Akpata; 2nd Vice President, NBA, Monday Ubani; Acting Director-General SEC, Ms. Mary Uduk, Ag. Executive Commissioner Corporate Services SEC, Henry Rowlands; and Acting Executive Commissioner, Legal and Enforcement, SEC, Reginald Karawusa; after the meeting in Abuja.

The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) has offered to partner the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to ensure a deeper capital market.
Speaking when members of the NBA Section on Business Law (SBL) visited the SEC office in Abuja, Olumide Akpata, the chairman, noted the need to build “capacity among our members to assist in capital market operations and we hope to partner with the SEC to deepen this understanding.
“Our members also go to the Nigeria Law School to mentor the students on the operations of the capital market and we are working with the Nigeria Stock Exchange to get a proper framework.
“We are also contemplating a collaboration with the National Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) to commence a diploma in advanced commercial law so that our people can better understand the workings of the capital market”.
A statement by Efe Ebelo, Acting Head, Corporate Communications, said the visitors while pledging support to the SEC, commended efforts at ensuring that lawyers are carried along on issues relating to rules and regulations in the capital market.
Welcoming the visitors, Acting SEC Director General, Ms. Mary Uduk, urged the lawyers to support the SEC in its regulatory roles, support the market and also be more involved in activities in the capital market.
She appealed to them to be more involved in the structuring of transactions, in the structuring and drafting of legal documents adding that in other jurisdictions, lawyers are at the forefront of capital market transactions, and Nigeria’s case should not be different.
“Lawyers are key players in the transactional processes which permeate the world of capital markets. They advise debt and equity issuers and the investment banks which structure and sell the financial instruments.”
She therefore solicited the support of the lawyers and encouraged them to impart the knowledge gained from conferences abroad for easy operations of the market adding that the SEC is ready to support actions that will help deepen and grow the Nigerian capital market.