The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it is partnering with the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to develop standards that would make the nation’s agricultural commodities more acceptable in the international market and generate foreign exchange (forex).
According to Lamido Yuguda, director-general of the SEC, Nigeria has various commodities that could be exported to grow the economy, create more jobs and generate forex.
This comes as profit-taking continues at the capital market, trimming the capitalisation by as much as N7 billion at the close of last Friday’s trading. Yuguda said the agricultural sector in the country is expected to grow significantly shortly, noting that some of the standards have been developed with the synergy.
The SEC boss said that the development of these standards will pave the way for the export of these products to the international market which would ultimately boost the economy.
According to him, despite the nation’s abundant agricultural resources, it has continued to rank behind peers in the international market in terms of commodities due to poor standardisation while smaller African countries receive better recognition and acceptance.
He said that the commission is pleased about the new government’s plans to support the commodities sector, adding that this would further boost the SEC’s efforts at developing the Commodities sector.
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“Already, we have licensed a total of five exchanges and also approved the trading and framework for operations of different instruments. We are collaborating with NAICOM, CBN, SON and the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals and Mines in various ways ranging from capacity building, standard setting, domestic and international advocacy, among others.”
Yuguda stated that as part of its implementation of the Capital Market Master Plan, the commission constituted a Technical Committee on Commodities Trading Ecosystem whose mandate was to identify challenges of the existing framework and develop a roadmap for a vibrant ecosystem.
“A committee comprising various stakeholders including the SON was set up to drive the implementation of the report. One of the recommendations in the report identified the development of grading and standardisation system in line with international best practice,” he said.
The commission has stepped up the interface with issuers to address issues confronting the group and discourage persistent delisting of firms from the capital market.
According to Yuguda, SEC has set up the Securities Issuers Forum, in collaboration with Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) to enable the commission to engage the association and discuss issues confronting them and find lasting solutions to them.
He said: “When issuers delist, they do because of certain issues. So we decided to engage the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, NECA and set up the Securities Issuers Forum. This was done to sit and discuss the issues and find solutions to them.
Yuguda also disclosed that the commission has introduced incentives to encourage companies to list on the exchange, noting that listing provides enormous benefits to both the companies and investors.
The SEC Boss stated that some strategic listings have happened in the market in recent times, noting that the commission is also encouraging the diversification of the equities market by seeking the listing of more companies within the power generation, telecommunications and food sectors.
He pointed out that when capital markets are developed, the entire engine of savings, investing and allocation of resources to the projects that have the highest expected returns are made easy. He assured that the commission would continue to collaborate with various market stakeholders to support impactful innovation in the capital market.
