The Acting Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mary Uduk has reaffirmed the decision of the Commission to boost commodity trading in Nigeria, according to ThisDay.
The Details: The SEC boss declared this on the sidelines of a two-day capacity building programme on commodities trading ecosystem organised for staff of some federal ministries in Abuja. She said the regulator would champion this move by making the Capital Market sector have a vibrant commodities ecosystem which would lead to development.
Explaining the importance of a vibrant commodities ecosystem, Uduk pointed that it could aid Nigeria’s diversification plans as well as increase the nation’s foreign exchange (forex) earnings and revenue.
She hinted at a 10-year capital market master plan, designed to make Nigeria one of the world’s most liquid and Africa’s largest economy by 2025.
“One of the crucial initiatives of the plan was to develop a thriving commodities trading ecosystem and fully utilise the nation’s potentials. We believe that if we can develop a vibrant commodities trading ecosystem in Nigeria, we can substantially address lack of storage, poor pricing, non-standardisation and low contribution of foreign exchange affecting our commodities sub-sector,” she said.
As a piece of advice, Uduk restated the need for Nigeria to give agriculture a chance. According to her, agriculture would enhance food security, job creation and facilitate production of raw materials for agro-processing.
She stated the need for Nigeria to move its trading system from an informal commodity trading system to a more organised platform capable of accommodating commodity exchanges. She stressed that the 10-year capital market master plan was still an important priority for the regulator.
A recent Nairametrics report disclosed SEC’s determination to ensure that the investors in the Nigerian capital market were adequately protected in all transactions. It also contained a promise restated by Uduk to the investors that they would not be shortchanged in any transactions in the market through several initiatives in place to boost investors’ confidence like the e-dividend mandate system.
