SEC Canvasses Technology For Capital Market Growth
BY CHINYERE OBIORA, LAGOS – Acting Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Mary Uduk, is upbeat that technology will reduce cost and ease of doing business in Nigeria’s capital market.
She said if properly leveraged, the operators and the country will be better off in a technology-driven market environment.
Uduk said the Capital Market Committee has therefore commenced work on a Road Map towards evolving guidelines that would enable the capital market leverage on technology to reduce the cost of doing business in Nigeria.
Speaking in a media interview, the SEC boss said there is an urgent need to upgrade and emulate the banking sector where its payment system is driven by technology.
According to her, in today’s banking, people can easily make purchases, payments and even obtain loan facilities with phones without physically going to the bank.
She said; “We have seen that there is a lot of innovation and cost reduction in the money market due to technology. So, we also want to do the same in the capital market.”
The Director General said the Market Committee has dedicated a division in SEC to Fintech with the responsibility of examining all technologies in the capital market as they relate to Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), among other issues.
“In the capital market, technology has assisted in improving processes like the use of Block chain for settlement. Afex right bow uses block chain to drive its data and we also have technology driving the platforms through which people are now able to come in and invest”, she said.
Furthermore, the Commission Chief Executive said; “Innovations in financial technology, has made possible the potential of using digital tools to make financial services available to a wider range of consumers and enterprises, promoting financial inclusion and the affordability of financial services. A financially inclusive society will provide increased access to finance, especially for women, help support sustainable growth and will create a million more jobs.”
“The gains of having a more inclusive financial system are enormous, as it helps broaden financial markets and make policies more effective”, Uduk said.
On SEC’s efforts at reducing unclaimed dividends profile in the market, Uduk said, the e-dividend Mandate Management System now allows investors’ accounts to be credited immediately they are mandated with the registrars and the relevant banks, adding that within 24 hours, the money is expected to hit the investors’ account, including the backlog that have been outstanding over the years.
The Director General said the law provides that 15 months after dividends have been declared, all the unclaimed ones should be returned to the companies, noted that as at September 2018, the value of unclaimed dividends stood at about N100 billion with N10 billion already paid to investors this year.
She also spoke on the need to grow the market for trading in securities on unlisted public companies, adding that the Commission is collaborating with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and other stakeholders to assist public companies that are yet to register their securities to do so without much difficulty.
Uduk explained that the initiatives would continue to highlight and promote developments and trends in the Nigerian Capital Market and drive Financial Inclusion meant to check and reduce adult exclusion from financial services.
