As Nigeria makes concerted efforts to weather the current economic challenges, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) has identified the Nigerian capital market as a strong and veritable tool for reviving and developing the economy.
Director General of NOA, Garba Abari made this known when he received his Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) counterpart, Mounir Gwarzo in his office on advocacy for public enlightenment on the E-dividend initiative of the Commission. He said the capital market can provide a broader and surer capital base to drive the economy beyond the fluctuating offerings of the oil sector.
Pledging NOA’s commitment to utilize over 240 Nigerian languages in sensitizing citizens on the benefits of the E-dividend initiative as part of SEC’s Capital Market Master Plan, Abari was optimistic that the existing knowledge gap about the operations of the capital market will be effectively bridged.
Earlier, the SEC Director General, Mounir Gwarzo stated that unclaimed dividends in the Nigerian capital market now amounts to over N80billion owing to a variety of factors, regretting that the market had not grown to the level expected by experts in its 60 year history. These, he said, were among other reasons that inspired the development and implementation of the first ever Nigerian Capital Market Master Plan, taking a cue from the Malaysian and Indian Capital Markets revamp after the 2008 to 2010 global meltdown.
The Master Plan, according to the SEC boss, provides for the operationalization of the E-dividend mandate which allows investors to simply fill a form at their banks and get subsequent dividends from their capital market investments directly in their bank accounts as against the previous practice of waiting for warrants to take to their banks. He identified the need to raise retail investors’ awareness and participation in the capital market, hence the visit to solicit NOA’s support for public enlightenment in that regard.