SEC to partner ABU on capital market development
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set to collaborate with Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in a bid to further deepen the Nigerian capital market.
Director-General of the SEC, Mr. Lamido Yuguda stated this when the Vice-Chancellor of ABU Prof Kabiru Bala led other top management of the University to the Commission.
Yuguda said that the Commission is currently carrying out a number of initiatives which he stated would appeal to the younger generation and attract them to the capital market.
According to the DG “Today, people like things they can do on their phones/tablets and that is why we are embracing technology in the capital market. Fintech companies are attracting young people to do investments with their phones meanwhile the market still relies on paper documentation.
“This is really something of the past as we are committed to ensuring that our markets are technology-driven. Technology is the way to go and it is the way to really engage people. Once the youths buy an idea, it goes far and wide.”
Yuguda bemoaned the high level of unclaimed dividends in the capital market and enjoined investors to mandate their accounts for e-dividend in a bid to reduce the quantum.
He said, “So many investors have shares in the capital market and have abandoned them. People have not come forward to claim their dividends and this has led to huge unclaimed dividends and has increased the unclaimed dividends profile.
“The Commission has over time been educating and enlightening the public on how they can get their dividends. Now they do not need to wait for the broker to send the dividend warrants through the registrars. The dividends can actually come to them directly into their bank accounts through e-dividend payments.
“We will arrange investor clinics to ABU to talk about issues in the capital market and encourage the staff and students to key in. ABU is reputed for giving the very best in tertiary education and some of us are proud graduates of the university.”
