The Senate Committee on Capital Markets on Wednesday screened the new Director-General designate, Lamido Yuguda, and commissioners of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
At the event, the Committee’s Chairman, Ibikunle Amosun, said that the Nigerian capital market remains a very critical tool that could rescue the nation’s economy from the brink of recession in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amosun said that the capital market had the depth to revamp the nation’s poor state of infrastructure, noting that there was no better time than now for federal and state governments to leverage opportunities provided by the capital market for sourcing infrastructure financing.
“We now know what the capital market can do to rescue the economy at a time like this. Shares are tumbling but we hope it won’t last long. However, we also have to look inward and explore ways of diversifying our economy away from crude oil.
“If we have to diversify our economy, the capital market has a role to play and that is why we are here to support you.
“And that is why we have suspended everything else to go on with this screening. We will support the capital market for our country to realise these economic goals,” he stated. The committee chairman commended stakeholders in the market on their efforts so far, adding that there was room for improvement in efforts to getting the nation’s economy on the right path.
He assured that the National Assembly was ready to assist with enabling legislation that would provide the right environment for the capital market to thrive.
“But there is room for improvement to get our economy to where we want it to be. We need to have the enabling laws in place to create an enabling environment for the market to thrive and the national assembly is ready to assist in that regard,” he added.
