Stakeholders in the Nigerian capital market at the weekend applauded the decision of the Federal Government to sack the board and management of the country’s Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) in what may be a further step expected to ensure the birthing of the administration’s $1 trillion economy.

Reacting to the sacking of Lamido Yuguda on Friday, shareholder-rights groups told Daily Independent that the appointment of Dr. Imomotimi Agama, a technocrat and insider of the commission, will accelerate the development of the capital market, including the unclaimed dividend debacle, among others.

In a statement on Friday, Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity), announced the appointment of Mr. Mairiga Aliyu Katuka, as Chairman; Mr. Emomotimi Agama, Director-General; Frana Chukwuogor, Executive Commissioner (Legal and Enforcement); Mr. Bola Ajomale, Executive Commissioner (Operations); Mrs. Samiya Hassan Usman, Executive Commissioner (Corporate Services); Mr. Lekan Belo, Non-Executive Commissioner; and Mr. Kasimu Garba Kurfi, Non-Executive Commissioner.

Responding to a question by Daily Independent, Adebayo Adeleke, a shareholder rights activist and board member of some companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange, said he expects the new SEC team “to accelerate the development of the capital market by improving the response time of the commission to issues that need the commission’s attention, intervention and approval.”

He lamented that the commission “delays a lot of things in the capital market, and that frustrates operators and investors. SEC under Agama should always be focused on its primary task of protecting investors.”

As an immediate step, Adeleke wants the SEC to have investors/ shareholders’ representatives on the Capital Market Committee (CMC), adding that “it’s incomprehensible how capital market decisions are made by CMC while owners of capital are locked out. Its what the late MKO Abiola referred to as ‘shaving a man’s head in his absence.’”

Congratulating the new SEC DG, Mrs. Bisi Bakare, President, Pragmatic Shareholders Association of Nigeria, expressed hope that he “will bring his experience to bear in repositioning and enabling the regulatory body achieve the reasons for its existence.”

Bakare urged the new SEC board and management to tackle thorny issues that have over the years cast a dark cloud on the Nigerian capital market.

These, she said, include the untamed growth in unclaimed dividend, which at the last count was estimated at over N190 billion; and frequent delisting of companies from the NGX Limited.

The SEC management under Dr. Agama, she continued, must restore the glory of the commission as an apex regulator of the Nigerian capital market; review the road map to ensure it becomes realistic in the development, while positioning the market “as a role model for peers across Africa and the globe.”

The commission should renew the fight against abuses in the market by reducing infractions which has continued unabated due to unchecked malpractices.

Also reacting, Boniface Okezie, the National Coordinator, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PSAN), described Friday’s appointment as “news of the week” which suggests that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration is beginning to get its acts together.

He lamented that “the immediate past DG after assuming office distanced himself from shareholder groups unlike his predecessors who held regular consultations with the leadership of shareholder groups who in the process made inputs into the market.”

He urged the new SEC board and management to do everything within their power to return the unclaimed dividend to their owners, urging them to work with the various stakeholders to move the capital market forward.

On the second banking sector recapitalisation exercise, Okezie charged the new SEC management to enhance its capacity such that it is not overwhelmed leading to unnecessary delays in approving various applications by companies seeking to raise fresh capital, while putting ethnicity and religion aside in the recruitment process.

On what kind of reorganisation he expects at the commission, Adeleke said it is a continuous exercise, expressing confidence “that the new DG knows what to do to position the commission for greater efficiency.”

Response timed, he agrees, “is a major issue with SEC. The bureaucracy is high. SEC should be ready to handle banking recapitalisation. It has fewer banks to deal with now than in 2005.

The level of scrutiny of the capitalisation however calls for IT enabled personnel. Trained personnel that have deep understanding of the methodology and emerging trends in exercising oversight financial functions.

Risk profiling of the recapitalisation process, systemic implication of not empowering Nigerians to take the lead in the exercise, economic and political implications of handling the banking sector to Western sharks are deeper issues for SEC to consider.”

Alhaji Gbadebo Olatokunbo, another shareholder activist and co-founder of the Nigeria Shareholders Solidarity Association, agreed that the quality of people appointed onto the board of the SEC signals its fresh rebirth.

He urged the commission to be proactive like the Central Bank of Nigeria, and “stop waiting too long on several issues before reacting.

“The system of work in SEC must totally be changed and must reflect that she is totally in control,” expressing confidence that “the current composition of professionals would achieve better results than before, because for the first time we have active participants in the economy and capital market as the core of the SEC board.”

He charged the commission to collaborate closely with the NGX “to get fast and first hand facts/ information on happenings at the capital market, than when the issues would have been almost out of hands, before they will be brought to their (SEC) attention.

“Now that we have professionals at the helm of affairs at SEC, the job will be a little easier for the organisation, in the sense that they know the steps taken and how they were done in the past, while areas that need corrections could be easily be identified and corrected.

“And mind you that with the current changes at SEC, most if not all the companies coming for recapitalisation will be very serious on their approach to the capital market, having in mind that the business has changed and can never be as usual again, because there is no hidden place from the professionals on board at SEC now, while the officials at SEC might need very serious reorientation on the current happenings in the global village in-order to be able to catch up with new order with good speed,” Olatokunbo stressed.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT