FOREIGN

West African Capital Markets Integration Programme Will Create Opportunities For Cross-Border Securities Transactions- Yuguda

 

The Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr Lamido Yuguda said that the aim of the West African Capital Markets Integration Programme was to create an enabling environment for cross-border securities transactions and the integration of all capital markets jurisdictions in the ECOWAS region.

Yuguda stated this during a meeting with the director-general of SEC Ghana in Accra.

He said that given the enormous potential of cross-border listings, capital markets in the region were expected to develop a tool of cooperation that enables them to effectively police their respective markets and ensure that the standards of regulation set out by IOSCO are sustained and improved upon when necessary.

Yuguda emphasised that it would take cooperation from all the parties involved to bring the project to fruition.

He said “Without the readiness of all concerned, the lofty aims of the program may as well continually remain a dream. It goes to say, unequivocally, that this goal can only be achieved seamlessly when all member states of ECOWAS come on board and actively commit to achieving the noble objectives of the enhanced collaborative structure that the nature of these agreements enable.

“On this note, the SEC Ghana and SEC Nigeria, desirous of achieving these ideals, have taken the lead by example and by driving this project in the sub-region while hopefully aiming to someday expand its coverage beyond the sub-regional frontiers onto other parts of the continent of Africa.”

Yuguda said that the enduring relationship between the two jurisdictions is amplified by the fact that Ghana and Nigeria have the largest markets in the West African sub-region.

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He added that it would be good for both countries to seize the advantage of size and peculiarities and explore viable areas of cooperation.

“We need to come closer and take deliberate steps to achieve bilateral cooperation. We are very keen on this relationship. There is a strong relationship between us so we need to continue to nurture and grow it and create institutions that will help our people have better living standards.

” I hope we can achieve a lot by bringing our capital markets together. We need to make our institutions stronger as well as our economic activities.

“We require this collaboration in a bid to make the process of accessing our markets as seamless as possible, easy for people to transfer assets, make investments and have confidence that the investments are protected in Ghana as they are in Nigeria and vice versa,” Yuguda stated.

In his remarks, the DG of SEC Ghana, Rev Daniel OgbarmeyTetteh, commended the Nigerian SEC DG.

He stated that Ghana and Nigeria can push forward in ways that will bring about the mutual benefits of leveraging the capital market, adding that the region needs to have their markets open to each other so that they can achieve more and then attain one big capital market.

Tetteh also expressed delight at the collaboration and pledged the commitment of SEC Ghana to the initiative.

“Both Securities Commissions are ready to work together and develop the potential of the capital market by examining issues and exploring ways to resolve them to make the capital markets work better. If you want to go far, it is better to go along with others and that is why we always have discussions on cooperation in the capital market,” he said.

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