The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the capital market, which is considered the catalyst for economic growth, must be sustained by an effective and efficient dispute resolution mechanism to engender investors’ confidence.
Director General of SEC, Lamido Yuguda, stated this at a workshop organised by the Investment and Securities Tribunal in collaboration with the Nigeria Bar Association yesterday.
Represented by the Executive Commissioner Legal and Enforcement of the SEC, Reginald Karawusa, Yuguda said the workshop was important for legal practitioners who appear on behalf of their clients or practise in the capital market.
According to him, lawyers play very prominent roles in the capital market and as such should not only practise how to structure transactions but also have knowledge of the procedure.
The SEC DG said the workshop would among others, discuss topical issues such as the status, jurisdiction and power of the tribunal, transactions and dispute resolution in the Nigeria capital market, the role of lawyers and panel discussions on these all-important topics.
“It is a welcome development that workshops such as this are holding at this period when the new Investments and Securities Tribunal (IST) procedure has been published. I would encourage and recommend that this workshop be an annual feature in the calendar of the IST and the Nigerian Bar Association,” he said.
Chairman of IST, Amos Azi said that by the Securities And Exchange Commission Act of 1988, the Federal High Court is vested with jurisdiction over violations arising from capital market transactions.
Azi said investors’ confidence was eroded by the delays encountered in the resolution of their disputes in the conventional courts as the transactions in the market increased, thereby impacting negatively on market performance.
According to him, pursuant to the Act, the SEC established the administrative hearing proceedings committee to resolve capital market disputes, and appeals from to the Federal High Court.
“Unfortunately the Federal High Courts were largely unable to appreciate the peculiar nature of the capital market, being as it were very time sensitive.
The IST Chairman said mindful of the need to be responsive to an ever evolving market, the tribunal reviewed its procedure rules, which was exposed to stakeholders for necessary inputs.
He added that the new rules which incorporated the use of technology and other trends in the market in the tribunal’s proceedings further addressed all observed lacunae in the reviewed rules.
