SEC Backs DataPro’s Move to Encourage Infrastructure Financing

Chibuzor Oluchi

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has renewed its pledge to provide the required support to relevant stakeholders of the Nigerian stock market in simplifying processes that encourage optimal infrastructure financing and other expansionary measures.

The pledge was given by the Director General of the commission, Mr. Lamido Yuguda at the annual rating webinar titled: Boosting Infrastructure Development: the Role of Credit Rating Agencies, organised by DataPro, a leading and experienced compliance, corporate governance and fraud risk management consulting firm in Nigeria at the weekend.

According to him, the challenges posed by traditional funding sources make capital markets increasingly the preferred way to finance infrastructure.

“We have seen this preference by both the federal and state governments on various bond issuance programmes within the last few years,” noting, however, that the role of credit rating agencies in assessing the credit risk of issuers and their instruments in infrastructure finance cannot be overemphasised.

He, therefore, promised that the SEC is always ready to provide the required support to the relevant stakeholders of the Nigerian capital market.

The Managing Director of DataPro, Mr. Abimbola Adeseyoju, who described the webinar as a continuation of the company’s collective efforts at promoting the value proposition of the credit rating industry as an unbiased and efficient way of allocating financial resources within the capital market which ultimately will result to economic growth and national prosperity.

He explained that DataPro has invested heavily in new technological tools such as machine learning, big data and artificial intelligence to set world-class standards for processes and services, explaining that this explains the strategic alliance Modefinance, Europe’s number one FinTech rating agency, to make its rating process more universal, transparent, accountable and efficient.

 “Our alliance with Modefinance has also led to the introduction of the 1st (Rating As-A-Service (RaaS) product in Nigeria named “Tigran-for-DataPro.”

“In continuation of our strive for a mutually beneficial partnership for the market, we have also joined forces with the International Islamic Rating Agency (IIRA) to deepen the Sukuk Market in Nigeria. Our goal is to ensure that investors and the country as a whole can benefit from the value addition of Sukuk and other innovative products and services,” he disclosed.