The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that it is currently working with the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NSE) to streamline approval processes and make listing procedures more efficient and cost-effective.
Director-General of the SEC, Lamido Yuguda, stated this at the NSE CEO Roundtable held in Lagos. He said the Commission is currently implementing measures to encourage more listings by creating new rules, amending existing ones and improving general review processes.
He also said the Commission would step up engagements with issuers, advisers and other critical stakeholders to ensure efficient exercise.
Yuguda noted that SEC, in collaboration with the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) has inaugurated the Securities Issuers Forum (SIF) aimed at providing an opportunity for issuers to engage directly with regulators on regulatory issues.
According to him, the objectives of the forum include maintaining regular contact with the regulator, promoting sound corporate governance and ethical conduct, advising the regulator on regulations affecting companies and issuers, promoting healthy competition and maintaining an enabling business environment.
He said: “Let me reiterate that the SEC is continually focusing on increasing the visibility and attractiveness of our market, and will continue to build a fair, transparent and efficient capital market.
“The Commission will also continue to embrace the ease-of-doing-business principle by simplifying its processes and enhancing time-to-market through the elimination of superfluous requirements that lead to inordinate delays in capital raising and other capital market operations. This is particularly important so that the market can be deepened further and provide an avenue for hitherto inadmissible entities to be eligible for listing.
He said creating the enabling ecosystem for accessing capital from the capital market resonates with the mandate of the SEC to develop and regulate the market while protecting investors.
Also, Yuguda said that the demutualisation of the NSE, which led to the emergence of the current NGX Group, has provided a renewed focus on expanding the market, by consolidating the successes achieved through the traditional methods of capital raising while working with important stakeholders to introduce new sources of financing.
“The Commission welcomes the sound initiatives of NGX for continued engagement with experts to share their perspectives on changes that would lead to the much-desired expansion of the market. This effort would not have come at a better time than now when economies are just beginning to face the devastating economic reality of the Ukraine and Russia crisis, which reared its head, just as nations were still grappling with the health and economic challenges posed by the Coronavirus Pandemic.
“You may be aware that the Commission is in the implementation phase of a comprehensive market and institutional reform program – the capital market masterplan that is intended to reposition the Nigerian Capital Market to be globally competitive,” he said.
