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By Chinwendu Obienyi
When President Muhammadu Buhari, appointed Lamido Yuguda, as the substantive Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in May 2020, the uncertainties around the leadership of the Commission was evidently resloved.
Before then, a leardership crisis had envolved the Commission when former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, in 2017, suspended Mounir Gwarzo, as Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to Adeosun, Gwarzo was suspended in order to allow for an unhindered investigation of allegations of financial impropriety leveled against him. The several allegations against Gwarzo included his collection of severance packages in the sum of N104 million while still in service.
He was also reported to be the Director of Medusa Investment Limited which was seen as a violation of Public Service Rules (PRS) 030424 and was also reported to have awarded contracts to the same company and other companies to which he was an interested party, thus resulting in conflict of interest, among other allegations.
Also, at that time, the Commission was embroiled in a dispute with Oando Plc over the company’s financial mess, a debacle that threatened to spill over, Adeosun approved the re-assignment of portfolios in the Commission by appointing Ms Mary Uduk, as acting DG.
The former Minister, in a letter dated April 13 2018, said Uduk’s appointment became necessary to ensure effective regulation of the capital market, adding that her appointment would, subject to satisfactory performance, subsist until further notice.
Uduk’s appointment raised eyebrows as it came at the time stakeholders clamoured for a corrupt-free and consistent board. But, the Uduk-led administration took a firm grip on the mantle despite the setbacks of the pervasive effects of the slow economic activities on the nation’s capital market and even in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, stockbrokers continued to urge the government to appoint a substantive head for the Commission, stating that it was contrary to the ethics of corporate governance for Uduk to continue to serve in an acting capacity for more than a year.
Yuguda’s appointment
The Senate received a formal letter from President Buhari requesting a confirmation from the upper chamber for Yuguda to become the new DG of the Commission.
The letter read, “Pursuant to Section 3 and 5(1) of the Investment and Securities Act 2007, I write to request for confirmation by the Senate, the appointment of the following four nominees as Director General and Commissioners of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Their CVs are attached herewith.
Others for confirmation are: Mr. Lamido A. Yuguda, Director General; Reginald C. Karausa, full-time Commissioner; Ibrahim D. Boyi, full-time Commissioner; and Mr. Obi Joseph, full-time Commissioner.”
Achievements
Reacting to the appointment, former Commissioner for Finance in Imo State, Uche Uwaleke, said the new SEC management team were all eminently qualified, especially the DG nominee, having retired from the CBN as a Director.
According to him, Yuguda’s CBN background will rub off positively on the market, especially in the area of forging closer ties between SEC and the CBN in the overall interest of the nation’s financial market.
True to his words, the SEC under Yuguda’s administration has achieved quite a lot through careful implementation of sound initiatives in two years. These include; introduction of rules on Green Bonds to promote issuance of debt instruments for financing of environmentally friendly projects and to provide the regulatory framework necessary for sustainability finance in Nigeria; creation of a Fintech and innovation division dedicated to products and services rooted in information technology, dematerialization of share certificates, E-Dividend and Direct Cash Settlement.
Others are the development and implementation of the Roadmap for FinTech in the Nigerian Capital Market; Development of the Crowdfunding Regulatory Framework, which could potentially transform Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises financing in Nigeria and the release of new rules on Virtual Assets Service Providers (VASPs) to ensure there is no loop-hole for financial crimes like money laundering through digital assets traded in the market.
Presently, the Commission regulates and supervises eight main exchanges in Nigeria which include the AFEX Commodity Exchange Ltd, FMDQ Securities Exchange Ltd, Gezawa Commodity Market & Exchange Ltd, Lagos Commodities & Futures Exchange Limited, NASD Plc, Nigerian Exchange Ltd, Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX), and Prime Commodity Exchange.
To curb issues of fraud, the SEC under Yuguda, decided to give unique identifiers to capital market operators (CMOs). The SEC DG noted that the identifiers will also reduce the high number of unclaimed dividends while issuing several warning notes urging the investing public to refrain from investing their money in outfits not registered with the Commission.
After a two-year debacle, the commission later settled with Oando Plc as the company agreed to pay all the monetary penalties. The commission has also pledged to work with her Ghanaian counterpart (Ghana Securities and Exchange Commission) to nurture market innovation and fair competition as well as to promote efficiency in regulatory oversight within the West African sub region.
Furthermore, its ten-year Capital Market Master Plan (CMMP), has now been admitted as the 246th programme and project in the recently approved National Development Plan 2021-2025 (NDP2515033).
Conclusion
With all the aforementioned achievements, there is still room for more improvement because stakeholders still have pending issues including reducing the number of unclaimed dividends and making it available to shareholders. Hence, it is imperative that the Yuguda-led administration do all it can to build a capital market that is the largest on the continent of Africa and one of the world’s deepest by 2025.
