By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to help it fight capital market infraction.
At the ceremony, Oscar Onyema, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NSE said the MoU would enhance collaboration by both parties in the fight against financial crimes in Nigeria capital market (NCM).
According to him, the current management of the Nigeria’s Exchange has zero tolerance for market infraction and would do all in its power to reduce it drastically.
On his part, Ibrahim Larmode, Chairman of the EFCC said for the fact that his Commission has signed an MoU with the NSE is an acknowledgement of the clear significance of the stock exchange in the lives of millions of Nigerians and the nation as a corporate entity.
According to him, the MoU was aimed at promoting corporation between the EFCC and NSE, “The Commission would duly meet its obligations under the MoU in order to help achieve the highest levels of accountability in the operations of the NSE,†he said.
Lamorde affirmed that the state of a country’s stock exchange is a reflection of that its economy.
He said the Commission had in the past 10 years intervened on a number of occasions in the capital market and uncovered strategies used by unscrupulous capital market operators to defraud Nigerian investors of their savings and investments.
The EFCC Chief further affirmed that the Commission currently had 20 cases at various stages of prosecution in courts across the country and that it recently secured seven (7) convictions in some of the cases that had been under trial.
Lamorde said despite these, some capital market operators are yet to learn their lessons from the landmark cases, one of which saw Kingsley Ikpe, Managing Director (MD), Thomas Kingsley Securities Limited, sentenced to 163 years imprisonment for capital market infractions in 2005.
He also commended the NSE on how they hand issues bordering on corporate governance in the Nigerian capital market which has led to a notable reduction on infractions.
