By InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE) – The Nigeria’s Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) in Abuja Nigeria reported five (5) million investors in the Nigerian Capital Market (NCM) within its 50 years of Regulation.

Arunma Oteh, the Director General (DG) of the Commission affirmed this Monday in her opening remarks at the Press Conference on the commemoration of 50 years of Capital Market Regulation in Nigeria.

“Current statistics reveal that only about 5 million Nigerians out of a population of 150million people invest in the Capital Market” she said.

According to Oteh, of this total, only 230,000 people, representing 0.15 percent (0.15%) of the total population, invest in Collective Investment Schemes.

“We believe that there is great opportunity for growth in this aspect of the Market both for the investor and the managers of such funds. In anticipation of the expected growth, the Commission has intensified efforts to strengthen the Market including examination of Fund Managers and Trustees of such schemes and recently encouraged the establishment of an industry trade group for the Fund Manager” the SEC DG said.

Oteh affirmed that the leadership of the Nigeria’s Exchange has been strengthened with the appointment, earlier in the year, of Oscar Onyema, new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Ade Bajomo, a new Executive Director (ED) for IT and Market Operations.

“The new NSE team has outlined a bold vision to build a credible Market with five product ranges – Equities, Fixed Income, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Options and Financial Futures – over the next five years” she said.

The Nigeria’s SEC DG further said that the new NSE team expects that these products will enhance liquidity and Market depth and lead to a robust Market that will have a Market Capitalisation of US$1trillion by 2016. “The Commission believes that demutualisation of the Stock Exchange will further strengthen the Capital Market. Consequently, the Commission had on September 22, 2011, inaugurated an industry wide committee to develop a roadmap for the demutualising the Exchange” Oteh affirmed.

She further affirmed that the Commission has undertaken a review of its internal structures to improve efficiency and service delivery. “We have also committed resources to enhancing our processes through fortification of our ICT platform in the areas of Registration, Returns Rendition and Analytics. To address knowledge gaps, we continue to invest in capacity building initiatives for SEC Staff, operators and the general public” she said.

“All of these are the outcome of almost 50 years of unrelenting commitment to market regulation. Our journey began when on October 31, 1962, the Capital Issues Committee was inaugurated with the mandate to examine applications from companies seeking to raise capital from the capital market and recommend the timing of such issues. The Committee subsequently metamorphosed into the Capital Issues Commission in 1973 which was superseded by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1980” Oteh affirmed.

The Nigeria SEC DG said in commemorating this milestone in the Commission’s evolution, it would embark on a year-long series of commemorative activities targeted at positioning Nigeria in its pride of place as the preferred investment destination. “The series of programmes, titled “Project 50” will commence with our flagship event, the investment forum scheduled for October 31, 2011. Indeed, ‘Project 50’ is an opportunity for us to showcase the centrality of the capital market to the orderly development of the Nigerian economy” she said.

“The Investment forum will feature 5 panels, namely the Economists’ Panel, the Regulators’ Panel, the Market Panel, the Opportunities Panel and the Visioning Panel. The panel of distinguished economists will examine the Nigerian economy and offer their perspective on how Nigeria can actualise our shared vision of becoming one of the world’s leading economies in 2020. The panel of regulators will outline the key elements of effective regulation and its role in building a leading economy. The Market panel will discuss the essential aspects of market development, notably depth, breadth, liquidity, and market efficiency. The opportunities panel will offer an exposé into the opportunities in various sectors of the economy whilst the visioning panel will outline the trajectory the country needs to follow to actualize our vision for the capital market” the SEC DG said.