By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Board of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Wednesday said it has restructured the organisation and had created a division for investor protection.

This is coming on the heels of the 72^nd meeting of the Commission which took place on June 25 2013 were the restructuring was approved by its Board.

According to a Statement made available to InvestAdvocate by Yakubu Olaleye, Head, Media of the Commission, SEC’s Legal and Enforcement Directorate is a particular focus of the changes.

SEC said the new organisational structure will enhance its service delivery culture in pursuit of its overarching mandate of investor protection.

The Commission said it will induce a refocus on the Commission’s core functions through strengthening of the Operations and Legal & Compliance Directorates, avoidance of multiple layers of reporting, elimination of duplication of functions, focus on customer service, stronger team work, stronger Zonal Offices which are able to enhance financial inclusion by developing and servicing regional streams of the Nigerian capital market (NCM).

“The strengthening of this vital arm of the Commission to boost its capacity to undertake market surveillance, monitoring, investigation of malpractices, etc is a key rationale for the reorganisation.” The Statement said.

Other changes include creation of new Departments: Office of the Chief Economist, Market Development, Strategy, Ethics, Procurement and Fixed Income.

Apart from Investor Protection, other new Divisions created include: Litigation, Investor Outreach, Call Centre, Non-interest Financial Products, Program Management Office, Statistics & Information Resource, Planning & Budget and Operations Infrastructure & Technology.

“The renaming of Finance & Administration Directorate was endorsed by the Board. Furthermore, desks / offices that perform similar duties or complimentary roles were merged while the new structure offers a clearer delineation between core and non-core functions.” SEC said.

The Commission further affirmed that the new structure was derived from a rich pedigree of expert evaluations of the previous SEC organisational structure.

“There was the Accenture Report of 2009 on the SEC; the Report of the Commission’s Management Retreat also of 2009; the US SEC Peer Review Reports of 2010 & 2012; extracts from SEC Leadership Retreat Report of 2010 and 2011; Professor Murunde’s Study of the Nigerian Capital Markets Institute (NCMI), a subsidiary of the SEC; and the Research Function Report of 2010.” The Statement affirmed.

SEC said that more recently, some observations of the report of the Financial Sector Assessment Programme undertaken on the NCM and the Commission by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on behalf of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) were taken into consideration. “The new structure also benefited from input and feedback from Market Operators and other subject matter experts.” The Commission said.

The Nigeria’s SEC new structure is as follows: the Director General’s Office comprising the Secretary to the Commission, Office of the Chief Economist, Internal Control, Zonal Office Coordinating, Ethics Office and External Relations and Information Technology; Operations Directorate made up of Registration and Recognised Investment Services, Securities and Investment Services, Fund Management and Collective Investment Schemes, Market Development.

The others are Legal and Enforcement Directorate which consists of Legal, Monitoring, Financial Standards and Corporate Governance as well as Enforcement; and Corporate Services in which is embedded Finance & Accounts, Human Resources, Administration and Procurement.

Obi Adindu, Communications Adviser to the Commission in a telephone chat with InvestAdvocate said the changes are intended to strengthen SEC and position it to better discharge its mandates.

Adindu further affirmed that the restructuring has created an avenue for the employment of professionals into the Commission for instance the ooffice of the Chief Economist, Market Development, Strategy, Ethics, Procurement and Fixed Income.