SEC ready to commence capital market curriculum in secondary schools

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says there are indications to infuse the proposed stand-alone curriculum on Capital Market Studies (CMS) into carrier subjects in Basic and Secondary Schools in Nigeria soon.

The Chairperson, Financial Literacy Technical Committee (FLTC) of the Capital Market, Mrs Oluwatoyin Sanni, said this in a statement signed by SEC’s Head of Media, Mrs Efe Ebelo, on Tuesday in Abuja.

Sanni disclosed this during an advocacy visit to the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr Babatunde Fowler, in Abuja.

According to Sanni, the Committee has worked tirelessly with the National Economic Research and Development Council (NERDC) to develop the curriculum.

“It is now ready and waiting to be infused into the various carrier subjects in upcoming workshops by the Council.

“We see this as a great step in our financial literacy work,” she said.

Sanni also commended the FIRS boss on his initiatives in enlightening students on the benefits of taxation.

She added that when young people were comfortable with taxation at an early stage, it made compliance as adults easier.

She restated the commitment of the Committee and the SEC to further educate and enlighten investors in the Nigerian capital market to enhance their ability to make informed investment decisions.

She said: ”This partnership to actualise this ground breaking Capital Market literacy programme is part of the Committee’s effort at vigorously pursuing the implementation of the 10-year Nigerian Capital Market Master Plan.

“And we are delighted it is coming into fruition soon.

“We have been in the vanguard of inculcating financial literacy for quite a long time.

“This is because stakeholders in the market realised the importance for students to imbibe the culture and habit of being financially literate and be familiar with the market’s operations.

“We seek to promote the growth of the capital market which remains an essential pillar in the development of the economy.

“The Committee promotes financial literacy from school age people to business people and when people are more financially literate they would be more economic viable and tax revenues would improve.”

Sanni said there was a clear alignment between the goals of the FIRS and that of the FLTC in collaborating to introduce the capital market studies into the curriculum of schools.

Also speaking, the FIRS Chairman commended the committee on its achievements while assuring the Service’s continued support in any way possible to promote financial literacy in the country.

“We will continue to support you within our capacity as we know that the issue of information dissemination is important in what we are doing.

“FIRS is always willing to partner on information dissemination which will positively impact on tax revenue in the near future,” Fowler added.

The Financial Literacy Technical Committee is a market wide committee of the capital market set up by SEC as part of the implementation of the 10-year Capital Market Master Plan.

It was constituted in 2016 as a strategy to execute some of the initiatives itemised in the Capital Market Master Plan (CMMP) 2015-2025 around increasing the level of financial literacy, especially capital market literacy, nationwide.