SEC gives reasons for empowering trade groups

The Acting (Ag) Director General of the Securities and
Exchange Commission, Mounir Gwarzo has said that one of
the reasons it is empowering trade groups in the Nigerian
Capital Market is to focus on its primary responsibilities of
regulating and developing the market
Gwarzo who said this when he received members of The As­
sociation of Assets Custodians of Nigeria (AACON) in Abuja,
commended the custodians for coming together to form an as­
sociation saying one of the policy thrusts of the present
management of the SEC was the empowerment of trade
groups for greater and more effective role performance in the
market.
He said, “As long as people come together to form groups, we
will support them. That is why we have reviewed our
complaints management framework to enable trade groups
handle complaints and resolve them and that is better for the
market. We are leveraging on making it mandatory for every
registered operator to belong to a trade group. Some may not
want to do so but that is a way of strengthening the trade
groups and we are going to come up with that directive”
Gwarzo said the Commission has finalised the rules on com­
plaints management framework with one of the highlights
being to allow complaints to be managed at the lower levels.
He therefore urged the custodians to be ready for the
responsibility to be able to manage complaints effectively. In
her remarks, President of the AACON, Kemi Adewole restated
the importance of creating conducive environment for foreign
direct and portfolio investments with a view to deepening the
Nigerian capital market. She commended the SEC on its
regulatory role, adding that her association will continue to
manage foreign investors’ impression of the Nigerian market.
“Our clients are about 90 percent of foreign investors that
come into the country, so we are the first point of call most
times and we feel it is important we also keep abreast with
what is happening around us and within the market”.