BARBARA BAKO, Abuja.
The Capital Market Committee (CMC) has inaugurated a Market Wide FinTech Committee that will come up with a FinTech Roadmap for the Nigerian Capital Market. The Committee which has the Executive Director, Access Bank, Mr. Ade Bajomo as Chairman was inaugurated during the 3rd Quarter CMC meeting on Wednesday in Lagos.
According to a statement by the commision, the Acting Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms. Mary Uduk expressed the need for the Nigerian capital market to transit towards a technology-driven one as is obtainable in other economies.
Uduk who pointed out that the commission was interested in investments that Nigerians were making, especially with the advent of digitalization, enjoined the committee to come up with guidelines on the direction the market needs to go on FinTech. She said “We don’t want a situation where we would be doing things differently, we want a cohesive FinTech Roadmap that would guide and help the market to be able to operate in an optimal way.
“If we will regulate and operate in this market and understand what is happening we need to understand the rudiments of FinTech. “Very soon the whole world will move to technology for regulation. Other jurisdictions have already gone far into it with some of them already amending their rules in that direction.
“The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) is on it and there is a lot on it already all over the world and we can’t be left behind. “We are very much interested in some of the most active areas of Fintech innovation like blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies and how they affect investors”.
Uduk noted further that as the regulator of the capital market, it was the responsibility of the commission to find out how such investments were being deployed. She said the committee was to check if such investment met set standards because when investors lose money they would come back to the SEC.
According to the SEC boss, that is why the commission is seeking to understand what FinTech is all about to enable the Commission to regulate the market properly. While alluding to the growing influence of Fintechs in the capital market, Uduk urged investors to take advantage of Fintech offerings in moving the Capital Market forward. She equally emphasized the focus of the Commission on capacity building, knowledge sharing, advocacy and collaboration with relevant organisations.
The CMC was mainly established to serve as a medium for exchange of ideas among market stakeholders as well as for feedback to SEC on how to continuously improve the market activities and regulation. It is an industry-wide committee comprising members of the commission, representatives of capital market operators and trade groups and other stakeholders. The CMC meets every quarter to deliberate on various issues affecting the market and other policy matters.
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