LCCI Urges NASS To Approve SEC Budget Allocation

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has appealed to the National Assembly to approve the 2013 budgetary allocation of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In a statement in Lagos on Monday, Mr Muda Yusuf, the Director General of LCCI, enjoined the National Assembly to look beyond the person of the director general of SEC.

Yusuf urged the National Assembly to reconsider its position because of the wider implications of its decision on the economy. “We believe there are adequate provisions in our laws and a multitude of state institutions that could be deployed to bring any erring public official to justice,” he said. Yusuf said that this should be a better option to explore than a clampdown on a strategic regulatory institution.

He said that LCCI was concerned about the non-consideration of the allocation to SEC, which it described as a strategic regulatory institution in the Nigerian financial system. “We urge the National Assembly to review its position in the interest of the stability of the capital market, the nation’s financial system and the larger economy,” he said.

He said that the current stance of the National Assembly had a reputational risk for stability and credibility of the Nigerian capital market.

The LCCI Director General said that the action could roll back the recent gains of recovery and stability in the capital market.

He said that it could also send wrong signals about the nation’s democratic process, especially the preservation of the tenets and values of separation of powers. It would be recalled that the Senate Committee on Capital Market, had on Oct 18, 2012, recommended the sacking of SEC Director General, Ms Arumah Oteh. This was carried out, but she was reinstated few weeks later. Since then, the National Assembly has dissociated itself from issues concerning SEC. In December, a three-man delegation of SEC, which attended a meeting called by the committee for all operators in the capital market, was ordered out of the meeting.