Acting Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms. Mary Uduk, at the weekend said technology has greatly enhanced regulation of the Nigerian capital market, making it more efficient.
Addressing newsmen in Lagos, she said the Commission is continuing to deploy technology in regulation, assuring that the SEC is stepping up its use of IT in market regulation to ensure that investors are adequately protected.
A statement by Efe Ebelo, head, corporate communications at the commission quoted Uduk as saying the SEC is looking at performing its primary function of investor protection, without stifling or sacrificing innovation and development in the market.
In this regard, she said the commission is already “looking into the area of crowdfunding, crypto assets, Robo advisory and distribution of collective investment schemes products through fintechs.
That is why, she continued, the SEC supports “FinTech by engaging and guiding Fintech start-ups that seek to operate in the Nigerian capital market. As the regulator, we are also working on adopting Fintech and Regtech in our regulatory operations while we encourage those we regulate to embrace Fintech, not as a competitor, but as enablers to their existing operations and processes.”
Already, the Acting DG continued, is now “able to tap into data we could not tap into before, so these now make regulation easier and more efficient and make us better able to protect investors.
“We have also continued to encourage the members of the capital market community to embrace technology to make it easier for themselves and investors to invest. These days we have a lot of improvements, as now most stockbroking firms have platforms you can just log in and buy on your own.
“As technology is improving access to the market, it’s also improving the ability of the regulator to better regulate the market” she stressed.
Uduk said it is based on the foregoing that the Capital Market Committee decided to embrace Financial Technology to easily access data.
For her also, “one of the major reasons for the acceptance of technology in the financial sector is that it makes things very easy to access and also to achieve. FINTECH has come to stay and the sooner we acknowledge and accept it the better for everyone. SEC constituted a Market-Wide FinTech Road Map Committee because we have realized that we live in a technologically driven era, and it is only important that the Commission embraces this trend and create an enabling environment for technology to positively impact on our market.
The Acting DG disclosed that the commission has specified minimum operating standards for capital market operators, including the exchanges, including the risk management tools embedded in them, as well as security tools.
“So, we have not been seeing a lot of these fraudulent activities, it’s actually on the low and falling. But our enforcement department is up and doing and keeps nipping these cases in the bud when they happen.
“But we believe that as we keep improving the risk management aspects of our operating standards, both from the regulatory and the market sides, these things will be on the decline,” she added.

Photo caption: Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Chief Joseph Oladele Sanusi, exchanging pleasantries with the Acting Executive Commissioner, Operations at SEC, Isyaku Tilde at the seventh-day Fidau prayer and Reception for late SEC Chairman, Alhaji Gbadamosi Otiti in Lagos, weekend, while Acting Director-General Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria Ms. Mary Uduk, looks on.