The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has concluded the review of the Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 2007 with the aim of passing the ISA bill 2021 into law during the year.
The Director-General of SEC, Mr Lamido Yuguda, said this on Thursday at the first post Capital Market Committee (CMC) meeting of 2022.
Yuguda said the commission, in collaboration with the National Assembly committees on Capital Market, organised a retreat to review the entire bill.
He commended the support received from the National Assembly Committees on capital market during the review.
Yuguda said the commission was currently working along with other agencies on a sectoral strategy to tackle any potential cyber-security threats on the country’s capital market.
He said that cyber-security was becoming increasingly important globally as many of the activities of individuals and organisations were now being conducted digitally.
Yuguda said that although the development had significantly raised efficiency level, it had also triggered new set of risks which the commission had recognised and would guard against.
This, according to him, necessitated the need to work toward a sectoral strategy for tackling the risks.
“You recall that during the last CMC meeting in 2021, Col. Bala Fakandu of the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA), sensitised members on the implementation of the National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy for the finance and capital market sectors,” he said.
He said the Commission would continue to enhance the existing regulatory framework guiding operations of the market by keeping pace with evolving changes in market practices.
Yuguda said the review of the updated Master Plan, which would guide the development of the capital market for the next five years, had also been completed.
He said the revised Master Plan would be launched soon.
On the issue of transaction fees which were non-existent or negligible in the debt capital market, Yuguda said the cost of regulation was relatively the same as in other instruments and markets.
This, he noted, was in addition to the fact that tax advantage gave the market some support to grow.
“This support was largely financed by fees from other segments of the capital market.
“We believe that the debt capital market has grown tremendously and is matured enough to contribute to the cost of regulating the Nigerian capital market, ensuring it remains safe and fair to all participants.
“As such, the commission introduced a regulatory fee structure on secondary market transactions in debt instruments, which took effect from Jan. 1, 2022,” he said.
Yuguda said the CMC had served as a platform for interface amongst capital market stakeholders to discuss issues germane to the development and orderly conduct of market activities.
