BY VICTORIA ONU, ABUJA
The Securities and Exchange Commission has reaffirmed that it is committed to making the capital market attractive to Nigerians of all ages and positions.
The Director-General of the SEC, Lamido Yuguda, stated this during a meeting with a team led by the British Deputy High Commissioner in Abuja.
Yuguda in a statement on Sunday said the Commission is implementing various initiatives to ensure that products and offerings in the market are accessible to both the young and old which he said would further deepen the market.
According to him, “When we assumed office, we were shocked to know that the average age of the Central Securities Clearing System account holder was over 50 years. The CSCS is a depository so if you are investing in equities you must have a CSCS account.
“The average age of that account holder was over 50, and that made us realize that the young people were not participating in this market and when young people are not participating in any market, that market is doomed to fail.
“Young people today prefer to do things on their phones, if you have to fill a stack of forms manually young people won’t do it. We want to make investing in the capital market a fun experience.
“The capital market experience starts with a bank account and eventually the distribution has to hit a bank account as well. So, we decided to look at the whole process and find out what is turning young people off.
Yuguda disclosed that the SEC recently approved an e-offer for MTN and expressed the excitement of the Commission that Nigerians, especially those of the younger age bracket were able to participate in the offer.
He added, “It was marvelously successful and we are very excited about it. A lot of young people who had never invested in the capital market took the MTN offer.
“That is one of the first steps in a lot of steps we are going to take to make investing in the capital market a much nicer experience for people both young and old. We know we can move quickly and faster once we strengthen our IT infrastructure to do a lot more.
“In this market, what we have seen is that where people do have ready access to interesting products in the regulated market they then gravitate towards the parallel markets and the Ponzi schemes and really the task of the Commission is to as much as possible move money to the regulated market away from the Ponzi schemes.”
He stated that with e-offers, many Nigerians would be happy to invest in the capital market and that would dissuade people from patronising illegal schemes thereby leading to the development of the capital market and the Nigerian economy.
Yuguda also stated that the Commission in its drive to attract more people to the market is focusing on a proper identity management system which would also aid in the reduction of the issue of unclaimed dividends.
