Agama: SEC Guidelines Ensured Stability in Recapitalization Process

Kayode Tokede

The guidelines released by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) prior to the banking recapitalisation exercise has been described as one of the steps that has made the process more transparent and easily accessible for Nigerians to participate in.

Director General of the SEC, Dr Emomotimi Agama stated this at the Commission’s head office in Abuja.

Agama said the present management of the commission is interested in integrity and transparency of processes, and that is why it provided clarity before the recapitalization exercise commenced, which is a major ingredient in a transparent capital market.

According to him, “That clarity came out of the regulations that the SEC brought up to support the banking recapitalization. The banking capitalization is a very important step by the government to strengthen the banks and indeed provide capacity for the banks to lend to the real sector for us to drive the economy, as provided for by the Renewed Hope Agenda Initiative and the design of the President to turn out a $1 trillion economy.

“And so it was important that all institutions that are concerned with this activity, come together and provide a needed guidance for the banks to be able to run the programme. This is about the second time that the SEC will be tested in its capacity to be able to handle this. The first was in 2004 as you are aware, during the Soludo recapitalization exercise, the SEC was tested, and we came out of the test positive, this time around, it will not be different”.

The SEC Boss said the processes could only get better as the Commission has learnt a few lessons from the previous exercise, adding those lessons have led to creating an environment that makes it seamless, including the introduction of the guidelines, and the needed technology to help deal with it.