The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has expressed the need for the capital market to be strengthened to accelerate domestic production and employment given the direct correlation between increase in production and job creation.
To achieve this, Director General of the SEC, Mr. Lamido Yuguda said there is the need to leverage the capital market for intermediation by facilitating access to capital.
This, he said can be done by making it easy for corporates to access long-term finance in an efficient manner, the capital market enhances the production levels of companies, thereby improving the capacity of such companies to expand their operations and employ additional labour.
Lamido spoke at the Annual workshop of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers with the theme “Leveraging the Financial markets to achieve double digit economic growth for Nigeria” held in Abuja Thursday.
The SEC boss posited that it should truly not be difficult to achieve double digit growth in Nigeria given that most key factors of production like a large vibrant youthful population, arable land, abundant rainfall, good drainage, and a large and growing pool of savings are available.
Yuguda disclosed that the Securities and Exchange Commission, as the apex body responsible for regulating and developing the Nigerian capital market undertakes specific activities to ensure investor protection, preserve the integrity of the market and improve its overall efficiency through registration, surveillance and enforcement activities.
In his remarks, Mr. Olatunde Amolegbe President/Chairman of Council of CIS said Nigeria is blessed with immense human and natural resources, but expressed dismay that the country is listed among the poorest countries in the world in term of per capita income.
“Just recently, in 2020, the country fell into its second economic recession in 5 years, although largely attributed to the covid-19 pandemic which affected all countries in the world. We exited the recession in the fourth quarter of the same year 2020.
