SEC May Shelve Nationwide Dematerialisation Awareness Campaigns – Official
Mr Emeka Madubuike, the Chairman, Securities and Exchange (SEC) Committee on Dematerialisation, says the commission may shelve the nationwide dematerialisation awareness campaigns scheduled to start on Jan. 31.
Madubuike told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday that the postponement was due to the zero allocation to SEC in 2013 federal budget by the National Assembly.
Dematerialisation is the process of replacing paper share certificates with electronic records at the Central Securities Clearing System.
He said that the campaign would not be feasible because SEC needed funds to carry out the elaborate campaigns.
Madubuike, who is also the President Association of Stockbroking Houses of Nigeria (ASHON), said that the zero allocation would affect other initiatives to revamp the capital market in 2013.
According to him, SEC cannot approve the committee's report for the Jan. 31, 2013 date because of the House of the Representatives’ stance that the commission’s director-general must be removed.
Madubuike, however, called for quick resolution of the impasse by the Presidency in the interest of the capital market and the total economy.
NAN recalled that the House of Representatives directed the withholding of SEC's allocation in the 2013 Appropriation Bill it passed on Dec.20.
This followed the lower legislative chamber's decision not to have anything to do with SEC until Ms Arunma Oteh is removed as the director-general.
The commission had proposed to spend about N93 million to execute the dematerialisation policy. Oteh had said at the 2nd Annual Capital Market Committee Retreat in Warri, Delta, in December, that some shareholders were resisting dematerialisation policy due to lack of knowledge of its benefits.
Oteh reiterated that asset transfer from one investor to the other would be much easier in a dematerialised market.
The director-general said that road shows and enlightenment campaign were imperative to sensitise Nigerians on its benefits to avoid resistance.