COVID-19: Capital Market can rescue Nigeria’s economy — Amosun

The capital market has been described as a veritable tool that could rescue the nation’s economy from the brink of recession in the face of COVID-19.

Sen. Ibikunle Amosun, Chairman, Senate Committee on Capital Market, stated this during a visit to the Lagos Zonal Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The commission in a statement by Mrs Efe Ebelo, Head of Corporate Communications on Sunday, quoted Amosun as saying that the capital market had the depth to revamp the nation’s poor state of infrastructure.

He noted that there was no better time than now for federal and state governments to leverage opportunities provided by the capital market for sourcing infrastructure financing.

“We now know what the capital market can do to rescue the economy at a time like this.

“Shares are tumbling but we hope it won’t last long, however, we also have to look inward and explore ways of diversifying our economy away from crude oil.

“If we have to diversify our economy, the capital market has a role to play and that is why we are here to support you.

“We will support the capital market for our country to realise these economic goals,” he stated.

The committee chairman commended stakeholders in the market on their efforts so far, adding that there was room for improvement in efforts to getting the nation’s economy on the right path.

Amosun assured that the National Assembly was ready to assist with enabling legislation that would provide the right environment for the capital market to thrive.

“We are happy with what we have seen so far, we are on the right path.

“But there is room for improvement to get our economy to where we want it to be.

“We need to have the enabling laws in place to create an enabling environment for the market to thrive and the national assembly is ready to assist in that regard,” he added.

In her remarks, Mary Uduk, SEC acting Director- General, lauded members of the committee on their drive to ensure that the capital market was stable and able to attract more investors.

This she said, the national assembly has done by supporting the SEC in ensuring that it delivered on its mandate of regulating and developing the capital market.

“This visit is important to us because over 90 per cent of capital market operators are here and Lagos is very strategic to the commission’s mandate.

“We are glad the senators are here, so they are able to see for themselves what we do and assist in whatever way possible to make our market one of the best performing in the world,” Uduk said.