SEC collaborates with RIMAN to deepen capital market

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has expressed readiness to collaborate with the Risk Management Association of Nigeria (RIMAN) to deepen the capital market.

The Director-General of SEC, Mr Lamido Yuguda, stated this in his goodwill message at RIMAN’s 20th international conference held virtually on Thursday in Lagos.

Yuguda said from the outbreak of the pandemic to the subsequent lockdown, the Commission had worked with capital market operators and other stakeholders to ensure that the market experienced minimal disruption.

He said SEC had supported and acquired various technologically driven innovations around market operations and products, some of which were Fintech, Digital Assets and Crowdfunding.

“To support this, we developed a regulatory framework to galvanise these activities while focusing on managing the risks inherent in the products and activities in line with our mandate of market development and investor protection.

“In supporting these innovations, we hope to build a better market, attract more investors, and reduce the demographic of the average age that presently invest in our market.

“We also hope to include millions who were excluded from the capital market by making it easier for them to gain access,” he said.

To achieve this, he said there was need to collaborate with RIMAN: “We hereby invite you to contribute in whatever way you can in building the Nigerian Capital Market.

“We invite you to do more in building the risk management capacity in the capital market, to conduct studies in risk capital market processes and products and contribute your opinions and recommendations to our exposed rules.”

Yuguda also said with increased membership, RIMAN had been more feasible in capacity building in the area of risk management and in organising excellent events.

“Since SEC’s registration as institutional member of the association, the Commission has enjoyed several benefits that cut across capacity building and the opportunity to share ideas.

“We will sustain this relationship and continue to contribute in any way we can to help the organisation succeed and develop risk management practice in Nigeria,” he added.

The Director-General described the theme of this year’s conference, “Risk Management in a Digital Era” as apt, and could not have been discussed at a more appropriate time as the coronavirus pandemic had increased the need for the use of technology in the corporate world.

He assured that as the regulator of a dynamic capital market SEC would see technological transformation as an opportunity to change the way it worked and the way it performed its regulatory functions.

Yuguda, therefore, pledged the willingness of the Commission to partner with RIMAN in its activities towards developing risk management practice in Nigeria.