Newly appointed Chairman of the Investment and Securities Tribunal (IST), Barr. Amos Isaac Azi, has said that speedy resolution of disputes brought before it will help boost investors confidence in the Nigerian capital market.
The IST Chairman who said this when he assumed office as head of the Tribunal on Thursday in Abuja.
Barr. Azi replaces former Acting Chairman Barr. Jude Udunni.
Azi added that its decision will either make or mar the market.
He said: “Whatever we decide determines one way or the other how business is to be done in this country from the capital market sector.
“Timely, speedy and just resolution of disputes is the key and cardinal thing that promotes investment confidence, that bring in investors to put in their investment in the country and to also provide the resources both corporate and government will need to carry out their assignments.”
Azi insisted that “no government or no company really has the resources to provide for all the infrastructural requirements it needs and so there is need to borrow, so there must be structure for borrowing”. The IST he said provides this structure by rendering credible judgments.
In an earlier comment, Barr. Jude Udunni, former Ag. Chairman, advised his predecessor to be patient and humble in addressing the concerns of the staff of the Tribunal. As, according to him, “To succeed in your onerous assignment, you require the twin virtues of patience and humility”.
He noted that issues have arisen following the just concluded staff promotion exercise as well as staff allowances.
According to him, “The Tribunal is indeed blessed with a staff composition of highly resourceful and competent personnel, who will need to be continuously motivated by addressing their concerns which comes up intermittently,
The IST he said has become a child of necessity as the Nigerian “Capital Market has over the years been able to establish a unique jurisprudence for our Capital Market, and through its well reasoned judgments helped to build and maintain investors confidence, by entrenching some measure of certainty and predictability in dispute resolution in the Nigerian Capital Market; the very essence for investors confidence”.
Udunni stated that “presently the Tribunal has 17 cases at various stages of hearing, and in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Tribunal has entered judgments in two cases, and has come up with a practice direction for remote hearings of cases to enable her decongest her case docket, for the good of the market”.
He urged the incoming IST Chairman “to finalise review of the IST Procedure Rules which is in its final stage.
This review he said will “addresses some perceived lacunae in the 2014 Rules, whilst making provisions for Rules on remote hearing of cases, amongst others”.
