Acting Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mounir Gwarzo has assured Nigerians of the commission’s resolve to increase participation of investors in the capital market, particularly, the local investors.
Gwarzo gave the assurance when members of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) visited him in the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
He said: “The current management will strive to develop domestic investment from retail and institutional investors.”
“We will step up to reach out to the market and improve investment. On the international side, what is most important is the enabling environment. Right now the rules are very friendly and that is why we keep changing them from time to time to suit best practices and attract investors,” he said.
Earlier in his remarks, President and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Institute, Mr Albert Okumagba, lamented the over 60 per cent control of the Nigerian stock market by foreign investors.
Okumagba said, “The current situation where over 60 per cent of the market is controlled by foreign investors gives serious cause for concern.
“The level of participation of our locals is effectively less than 3 million when ideally over 80 million of our people should be in the market.Our coverage of insurance assets in Nigeria is not up to two per cent of insurable assets, if we can increase from two to 20 per cent and then to 50 per cent, we will be shock at the kind of contribution that insurance can make,” he emphasised.
Mr Albert further disclosed that for pension, coverage was about eight per cent, noting that if Nigerians that were supposed to be captured by the pension reform act come on stream, ther would be multiples of the N4.7 trillion that has been mobilised.
Source : Tribune
