The Director-General (DG) of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has pointed to the non-interest capital market sector in Nigeria as one that is unique and full of potentials to facilitate the objective of deepening the financial system and spurring the growth of the Nigerian economy.
Mr. Lamido Yuguda, the SEC DG, in an opening remark during a four-day Executive Programme on Non-Interest (Islamic) Capital Market (NICM) Products and Basic Accounting Treatment organised by Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) based in Malaysia, and the Auditing and Accounting Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) based in Bahrain, spoke on the recent sovereign issuances of Sukuk in Nigeria.
He said that the recent sovereign issuances of Sukuk by the Nigerian Debt Management Office (DMO), which were all oversubscribed, stresses the need to enhance the SEC’s regulatory capacity adding that the Sovereign Sukuk issuances set the benchmark for other corporates to issue Sukuk for various developmental activities.
He also said that the Commission’s quest for in-depth knowledge for Non-Interest Capital Market products, operations, and services is further underscored by the recent increase in market activities such as the entrance of more asset managers, investment advisers, Real Estate Investment Trusts, advisory experts e.tc. to provide new asset classes for Nigerian investors.
According to him, “It is worthy of note that whilst the Non-Interest Capital Market sector in Nigeria is nascent and unique, it is a market full of potential to facilitate the objective of deepening the financial system and spurring the growth of our economy.
“Thus, as you are aware, the SEC in its efforts to deepen the Nigerian Capital Market, developed a 10-year (2015 – 2025) Masterplan with various strategic recommendations, one of which is to drive the Non-Interest Capital Market segment of the market to enable it contribute not less than 25 percent to the total market capitalisation.
“Although, we can confidently report some remarkable achievements recorded in the segment, six years into the implementation of the masterplan, the Non-interest Capital Market (NICM) segment is still facing challenges in terms of innovation, awareness, acceptance and coverage. These challenges underscore the need to provide focused training, capacity building and vigorous stakeholder engagement and awareness programs”.
Yuguda was confident that the IFSB and OOAIFI had assembled subject matter experts for the training to ensure that the SEC not only gains the requisite knowledge on the Non-Interest Capital Market segment, but also optimally leverages the global experiences of the facilitators to guide it in facilitating the development of the sector.
