NBA-SBL Chair Raps the SEC Gong

The Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association’s Section on Business Law, Mr. Olumide Akpata, sounded the bell to commence trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange Commission last Monday.

Akpata who was on a courtesy visit with the SBL Council Members to the SEC at the Commissions Headquarters in Lagos, was received on arrival by the CEO of the Commission, Mr. Oscar Onyema, and other senior officials of the Commission.

Welcoming the SBL team, Mr. Onyema said the SEC has since metamorphosed from the role of being just a platform for trading stock, but is now involved in equipping stockbrokers, lawyers and others with risk management tools, and that the Commission has continued its renewed determination to ensure that things are done the right way.

Akpata informed the SEC CEO, that the NBA-SBL has had a robust relationship with SEC over the years, and that the SBL team had only come to cement that relationship.

He also seized the forum to invite SEC to the NBASBL annual law conference in Lagos holding from June 18-22, saying "my predecessors in office had laid a good foundation, and in building on that foundation, I promise to make this year’s edition of the SBL conference the best so far. We’ll top what the SBL has done before now.

"We cherish the relationship between SEC and SBL, and hope that this year’s conference would be another good opportunity to strengthen that relationship.

"The SBL has also been collaborating with the government, through the Presidential Committee on the Ease of Doing Busi- ness in Nigeria, and we have helped and advised the National Assembly in the review of some old and obsolete business related legislation.

"We consider law reform very critical in the SBL, and the Legal Aspects of Derivatives for instance, is a new and emerging area which we hope young lawyers can focus and build their careers on".

The SBL team was taken round the Commission’s facilities, and Mr. Akpata got a rare privilege of sounding the gong to declare the commencement of trading on the floor of the house.