SEC targets N2.5bn revenue by 2024, remits N1.5bn in one year
THE Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC) has disclosed that the commission remitted a revenue of N1.5 billion into the Federal Government's account between June 2020 to June 2021.
The Director- General of the SEC, Lamido Yuguda who said this in Abuja, also noted that the commission has been paying 25 per cent of its gross revenue into the coffers of the government.
Yuguda said the commission is doing everything within its powers to reduce operating costs and return to profitability within the next two years, adding that it has planned early retirement of staff to tackle bloating costs.
He pointed out that the commission has been operating under very difficult circumstances as it is currently superintending over a market that was affected by the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
He assured stakeholders that steps are being taken to boost profitability despite the pandemic.
He said: “If we go through the Medium- Term Expenditure Framework which we started last year, if we look at 2022 and 2023, you will see that we have worked on our expenditure so that by 2023, the deficit will actually turn into a surplus of N1.235 billion.
"Also, by 2024 we should have a N2.5 billion surplus. We have done a lot of revenue raising drives just to ensure that the commission stays on track."
Yuguda called for stakeholders' support towards ensuring that the transformation exercise embarked upon by the regulator yields a meaningful result. In addition, he explained that the commission has aggressively reduced its overhead cost, stating that a reduction of a certain component of its staff pay has currently generated over N2 billion of savings for the regulator.
“If you take the MTEF numbers, as you go forward, you find that by 2024 staff cost reduces to only N5.88bn. So that is the trajectory that we are working on.”
To shore up its resources, the SEC boss said the commission has approached a number of institutions such as the African Development Bank, Financial Sector Development Africa and a number of other donors for financial aid.
This, he said, is expected to attract a grant of N3.84 billion for the commission to boost its operations.
“When we came last year, we discovered that there has been no IT investment in the SEC for over a decade. Our IT infrastructure is now obsolete, so we have to renew the facility."
He added that the fund generated through the grant would be deployed into IT infrastructure development.