SEC Decries Low Participation Of Retail Investors

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says it has intensified efforts to attract more retail investors into the nation’s capital market.
SEC’s Director-General, Dr Lamido Yuguda, made the disclosure while addressing participants at the 2020 Annual workshop of the Capital Market Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CAMCAN) in Lagos, yesterday.
Yuguda, who decried low participation of retail investors in the capital market, said that the commission’s vision was to attract more players to deepen the market.
Yuguda, who was represented by the Director, Lagos Zonal Office, SEC, Mr Stephen Falomo, said the commission had identified some challenges hindering retail investors from accessing the market.
He assured stakeholders that the commission was making more efforts toward attracting retail investors into the market.
“Currently, investors with multiple accounts are being allowed to consolidate their accounts into a single one and claim their accrued dividends.
“This is in a bid to encourage more domestic participation in the market.
“In deepening the market, we are exploring various avenues to increase the number of companies and instruments in our market, thereby raising the market capitalisation,” he said.
Yuguda said the commission took some strategic initiatives to boost market activities and crystallize the growth of the Nigerian Capital Market.
He said that the initiatives were taken to cushion the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the capital market.
The director-general added that the committee on COVID-19 had continued to provide support and equipment toward combating the pandemic and its effects.
According to him, SEC has continued to leverage on its business continuity plan and those of its operators to ensure that capital market activities would be carried out with little or no disruption.