Stakeholders in the Nigerian capital market have applauded the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Federal Government on the decision to appoint new management and board members for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
This they said, may be a further step expected to ensure the birthing of the administration’s US$1 trillion economy.
Reacting to the sacking of Lamido Yuguda on Friday, shareholder-rights groups stated that the appointment of Emomotimi Agama, a technocrat and insider of the commission will accelerate the development of the capital market, including the Unclaimed Dividend debacle, among others.
In a statement on Friday evening, Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity), announced the appointment of Mairiga Aliyu Katuka, as Chairman; Emomotimi Agama, Director-General; Frana Chukwuogor, Executive Commissioner (Legal and Enforcement); Bola Ajomale, Executive Commissioner (Operations); Samiya Hassan Usman, Executive Commissioner (Corporate Services); Lekan Belo, Non-Executive Commissioner; and Kasimu Garba Kurfi, Non-Executive Commissioner.
The statement said President Bola Ahmed Tinube “anticipates that all members of the Board of this critical commission will bring to bear their wealth of experience and competence in advancing the commission’s core mandate of developing and regulating a capital market that is dynamic, fair, transparent, and efficient, to bolster investor confidence and contribute immeasurably to the nation’s economic development.”
Responding to a Media query, Adebayo Adeleke, a shareholder rights activist and board member of some companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange expects the new SEC team “to accelerate the development of the capital market by improving the response time of the Commission to issues that need the Commission’s attention, intervention and approval.”
He lamented that the commission “delays a lot of things in the Capital market, and that frustrates operators and investors. SEC under Agama should always be focused on its primary task of protecting investors.
As an immediate step, Adeleke wants the SEC to have investors/shareholders’ representatives on the Capital Market Committee (CMC), adding that “it’s incomprehensible how capital market decisions are made by CMC while owners of capital are locked out. It’s what late MKO Abiola referred to as “shaving a man’s head in his absence.”
Congratulating the new SEC DG, Mrs. Bisi Bakare, President, Pragmatic Shareholders Association of Nigeria, expressed hope that Dr. Agama will bring his experience to bear in repositioning and enabling the regulatory body to achieve the reasons for its existence.
Bakare urged the new SEC board and management to tackle thorny issues that have over the years cast a dark cloud on the Nigerian capital market. These, she said, include the untamed growth in unclaimed dividend, and frequent delisting of companies from the NGX Limited.
The SEC management under Agama, she continued, must restore the glory of the commission as an apex regulator of the Nigerian Capital Market; review the road map to ensure it becomes realistic in development, while positioning the market “as a role model for peers across Africa and the globe.
The commission should renew the fight against abuses in the market by reducing infractions which has continued unabated due to unchecked malpractices.
Also reacting, Boniface Okezie, the National Coordinator, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PSAN), described the appointment as “news of the week” which suggests that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration is beginning to get its acts together.
He lamented that “the immediate past DG after assuming office distanced himself from shareholders’ groups unlike his predecessors who held regular consultations with the leadership of shareholder groups who in the process made inputs into the market.
He urged the new SEC board and management to do everything within their power to return the unclaimed dividend to their owners, while urging them to work with the various stakeholders to move the capital market forward.
On the second banking sector recapitalisation exercise, Okezie charged the new SEC management to enhance its capacity such that it is not overwhelmed leading to unnecessary delays in approving various applications by companies seeking to raise fresh capital, while putting ethnicity and religion aside in the recruitment process.
Gbadebo Olatokunbo, another shareholder activist and co-founder of the Nigeria Shareholders Solidarity Association agreed that the quality of people appointed onto the board of the SEC signals its fresh rebirth. He urged the commission to be proactive like the Central Bank of Nigeria, and “stop waiting too long on several issues before reacting.
“The system of work in SEC must totally be changed and must reflect that she is totally in control,” expressing confidence that “the current composition of professionals would achieve better results than before, because for the first time we have active participants in the economy and capital market as the core of the SEC board.”
He charged the commission to collaborate closely with the NGX “to get fast and first hand facts/information on happenings at the capital market, than when the issues will have been almost out of hands, before they will be brought to their (SEC) attention.
“Now that we have professionals at the helm of affairs at SEC, the job will be a little easier for the organisation,in the sense that they knows the steps taken and how they were done in the past while areas that needs corrections could be easily be identified and corrected.
“And mind you that with the current changes at SEC, most if not all the companies coming for recapitalisation will be more very serious on their approach to the capital market, having in mind that the business had changed and can never be as usual again, because there is no hidden place from the professionals on board at SEC now; while the officials at SEC might need very serious reorientation on the current happenings in the global village, in-order to be able to catch up with new order with good speed,” Olatokunbo stressed.
