Finance Minister to Launch Revised Capital Market Master Plan

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning Mrs. Zainab Ahmed is to launch the Revised Capital Market Master Plan that is expected to be the Roadmap for the capital market for the next few years.

This is also as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has scheduled to hold the third quarter Capital Market Committee Meeting.

The 10-Year Master Plan, which was launched in 2014 is being revised to reflect the dynamism of the market and developments in financial technology, among others.

According to the Director General of the SEC, Mr. Lamido Yuguda, the Revised Capital Market Master Plan 2015-2025 (RCMMP), developed by the Securities and Exchange Com- mission (SEC) Nigeria in collaboration with stakeholders, captures the challenges of our capital market in actualizing its role to drive national economic growth and more importantly, provides a blueprint to harness these opportunities to better position the capital market as the engine of our economic growth and development.

Yuguda said, “The first five years of the original Capital Market Master Plan 2015-2025 (CMMP) implementation focused on market and governance reforms in the aftermath of the global financial crises of 2008 and the Nigerian market correction that con- tinued into 2009, with significant success. During that period, stock certificates were dematerialized, dividend manage- ment was automated, corporate governance standards were improved, intermediaries were strengthened through revised capital requirements and risk based supervision, amongst several other initiatives implemented under the CMMP.

“Today, we face new challenges and opportunities. The pursuit of innovation and growth requires that we are open to opportunities and risks. Our choices are limited if we only seek opportunities within our traditional boundaries. Sim- ilarly, we inhibit our ability to grow if we do not curtail the

threats of unregulated risk taking. Promoting entrepreneurial and innovative outcomes, therefore, requires balancing our openness and more appetite for risk-taking with the critical need to protect investors. It is important to contextualize our aspirations within the fundamental objectives of market integrity and investor protection while pursuing economic growth. The RCCMP has provided a framework and outlined strategic initiatives that will help embrace and unlock these opportuni- ties in our capital market.