Senate President pledges speedy review of capital market laws

Senate President, B

Saraki made the pledge when the Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr Mounir Gwarzo, led his team on a visit to the Senate on Wednesday in Abuja.

The senate president assured that the bills would be looked into as soon as possible as they would help create an enabling business environment for the country when passed.

“The most important thing is to see that we carry out the necessary amendment that will be in line with best practice that will create and ensure that Nigeria is an investment destination.

“And as such, we will be able to help our people provide job, employment, fight poverty and to create wealth.

“I want to assure you that these reports will not just lie without anything being done, I promise you that we will start counting the work from now and ensure that we start the process.

“Hopefully, very soon we will pass the bill. These are very important bills and we believe that by passing those bills, it will create an impact to the economy and the country,’’ Saraki said.

He commended the SEC team for the work it had done in reviewing the laws and assured continued partnership of the senate to the activities of the capital market committee.

Earlier the SEC director-general prayed the senate to fulfill its promise to the capital market community that was made on June 6, 2016 by supporting the speedy passage of its bills before the senate.

The bills are the Investment and Securities Act (ISA), the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), the Trustees Investment Act, the Major Reform Act and the Financial Reporting Council Act.

Gwarzo also urged the NASS to adopt the report of the various law review committees as a working document for the amendment of the laws.

He explained that it was important that the report be adopted, given the depth of work that had been put into the review of the Act.

The capital market in June 2016, held a conference to find ways in which it could contribute to the country’s economic recovery.

At the conference, the senate president demanded that laws that could enhance the development of the capital market should be looked into.

The market community later set up three different committees to find ways of improving the operation.

The first committee looked at the review of the Investment and Securities Act; the second committee looked at the law of CAMA and the third at the FRCN and other laws by the Investment and Securities Act.

According to Gwarzo, the committees are drawn from stakeholders in the Nigerian capital market, the legal perspective and the operators.

He said the committee came up with a robust report highlighting areas that needed to be amended and the report was submitted to the market community in 2016 and was adopted.

He said the report was subjected to rigorous screenings by different groups and was later adopted by the advocacy group in the market called the CAMIC.

The SEC boss commended the support by the senate to the capital market community and prayed for more support in future endeavors.