Stakeholders express concern over government’s influence on market

Following unfolding developments in the Nigerian capital market, cross section of stakeholders in the nation’s market have expressed concern over government’s interference, as they expressed fear that politicians may have hijacked the nation’s investment haven.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, some stakeholder argued that capital market regulatory body hijacked by politicians, would be seen by the global community as lacking transparency, credibility and ethics, hence decisions by the regulator would be tailored towards political cleavage of people in power other than global best practices.

Daily Times Nigeria recalls that the supervisory ministry of SEC, the ministry of finance, headed Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, the minister, on Wednesday, 29TH November 2017, suspended the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Mallam Mounir Gwarzo and two other senior staff of the commission, the Head of Media Division, Mr. Abdulsalam Naif Habu and Head of Legal Department Mrs. Anastasia Omozele Braimoh.

The suspension, the finance minister said was to pave way for investigation into fraud allegations against the suspended officials.
Barely a week after the incident, Tuesday 5th December 2017, the House of Representatives on sought to reverse the suspension of the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Mounir Gwarzo, pending the outcome of investigation.

The lawmakers at the plenary Tuesday, resolved that the suspension should be vacated, and parties involved should “maintain the status quo” pending the outcome of the probe.

This was coming as the Federal Government of Nigeria had already appointed, the most sinor official in the commission, Dr. Abdul Zubair, as the acting Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

SEC Nigeria, had already assured the investing public and all stakeholders, local and international, of its commitment to ensuring an uninterrupted and orderly operation of the market and the regulation thereof.

Bonny Amadi