The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has called on market operators to prioritize cybersecurity measures to safeguard sensitive financial data and transactions.
The Director-General of SEC, Lamido Yuguda, disclosed this during the commission’s second Capital Market Committee (CMC) briefing which was held in Lagos.
Yuguda stressed the need for operators to counter unauthorized financial entities, unregistered products, and cyber threats.
Activities of unregistered schemes:
He reminded the market players about a series of circulars issued by the Commission aimed at protecting investors from the activities of unregistered schemes.
Yuguda reiterated the Commission’s warning to the public regarding the activities of Binance, Luno, PaxFul, Coinbase, and other unregistered platforms, as investing in crypto assets carries a high level of risk and may result in total loss of investments.
The DG listed efforts already made by the capital market including that the SEC has amended its Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Financing (AML/CFT/CPF) Regulation 2022, in line with the findings from the National Residual Risk Assessment (NRRA) exercise; New frameworks on the implementation of Targeted Financial Sanctions (TFS), Risk-based Supervision and guidance on Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) were developed for the market.
- “Meanwhile, a sector-specific entity risk assessment framework is being finalized,” he said.
Delisting from the capital market:
The DG lamented the trend of companies choosing to de-list from the capital market.
Emphasizing the significance of this matter, he affirmed that the SEC actively collaborates with the Exchanges to enhance approval procedures, aiming to render listing processes more streamlined, more efficient, and economically viable.
In addition, he revealed that advocacy initiatives were underway to address hurdles related to issuances and to motivate prospective issuers to consider market-based funding options.
Recall that the Nigerian Exchange Limited recently announced that Ardova Petroleum Plc has voluntarily been delisted from the Daily Official List of the Exchange.
This was contained in a weekly report of the NGX obtained by Nairametrics.
According to the report, the NGX notified the investing community that following the submission of the required post-approval documents from Ardova Petroleum Plc, the entire 1,310,629,267 issued share capital of Ardova was delisted from the Daily Official List of Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Wednesday, 26 July 2023.
The delisting of Ardova on NGX is under the Scheme of Arrangement between Ardova and the holders of its fully paid ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each as approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission and sanctioned by the Court.
Nairametrics reported that shareholders will receive N17.88 per scheme share as consideration for share transfer following the planned acquisition of shares held by other shareholders in Ardova Plc by Ignite Investments & Commodities Limited.
This was part of the resolutions passed at the Court Ordered Meeting of the Company held on 31 May 2023 as scheduled.
