Yuguda: SEC Regulatory Space in Digital Currency is Evolving
Kayode Tokede
The Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr. Lamide Yuguda has expressed that the commission’s regulatory space in digital assets is evolving, stressing that Nigeria is leading other countries in making the rules on digital asset space in Africa.
The DG who was represented by, the Executive Commissioner, SEC, Mr. Dayo Obisan at a virtual Nairametrics Economic Outlook on the theme: “Resetting Nigeria’s economic growth trajectory,” noted that the commission is making it viable for the operators and protecting investors.
Other speakers at the virtual meeting include: Partner fiscal policy and Africa tax leader, PwC, Taiwo Oyedele and Managing Director/CEO Cowry Asset Management Ltd, Mr. Johnson Chukwu.
According to Obisan, “The reality is that Fintechs are here. Months ago, we still released additional rules on crypto and Nigeria is leading in Africa in terms of making the rules in the digital asset space.
“Recently, the US has just released its own rule for digital assets and this is something we are trying to catch up on so that we can regulate that space, make it viable for the operator and protect investors that are going there.”
While a lot of people confuse the function of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to SEC with regards to cryptocurrency regulation, he said the SEC comes into the picture when crypto is used as investment.
Speaking earlier, the fiscal policy partner and Africa tax leader at PwC, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of federal government, among others do not remit withholding tax to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
According to him, “You will be surprised to know that the National Assembly, presidency and EFCC do not remit taxes according to the audit report of the auditor general.”
He said the federal government is taxing poverty in Nigeria, advising MDAs to remit taxes on staff and that the federal government must harmonise taxes by reducing the taxing agencies which should work in tandem with blocking leakages.
He said the government was basically taxing poverty at current rates, warning that if the poverty threshold was $2.15 and the average size of a household was five people, “it means we are taxing poverty when people can’t feed.
According to him, “If you tax people earning N70,000 or less you are taxing poverty. The top one per cent make up more than half of government revenue, so government policy should focus on the middle and upper classes and not on poor people.”
Speaking on the sectors the government needed to focus on for economic growth, Chukwu explained that, “Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) should be the engine room for economic growth in Nigeria. The activities in the SMEs cut-across all productive sub-sector of the economy.
“The key thing is that we need to encourage productivity and with an economy with a large population, we need to have a high diversified productive base, that is where SMEs should come in.
“If you talked about the sectorial sector, it should be agriculture. Agriculture in most countries are focused on food securities. Agriculture is the base of human industrialisation and it is necessary for us to have food security.”
He noted that Agriculture would not make Nigeria a sophisticated industrialized developed economy, stressing that manufacture, Information Communication Technology (ICT) are critical sectors.
According to him, “manufacturing sector today accounts for just four per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and unfortunately, that should create employment for the economy where about 45 per cent of the youths are unemployed.
“You need to grow those sectors that are meant to create employment. To grow the manufacturing sector, we need to address the issue of infrastructures, tax issues, address logistics issue; fix the seaports for import & exports of goods/services.”
He noted that funding, currently addressed by CBN, is also needed to drive manufacturing sector challenges.
