Planned new Shariah products target N5 trillion capitalisation, says SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission said that the revised edition of the Capital Market Masterplan (2021 – 2025) has a projection of 50 listings of Shariah-compliant products by 2025 with a target market capitalisation of at least N5 trillion.

SEC Director General, Lamido Yuguda, disclosed this, yesterday, during the opening of a three-day workshop for the non-interest capital market in Abuja.

Yuguda who was represented by the SEC’s Executive Commissioner in charge of operations, Dayo Obisan, said the non-interest capital market (NICM) also has new targets, including 100 retail Shariah-compliant products and one million or more direct investors in Shariah-compliant products with at least N5 trillion investment by institutional investors.

According to Yuguda, the Commission, in recognising the potential of the NICM for economic growth, dedicated a component in its 10-year (2015-2025) Capital Market Masterplan to the speedy development of the market in the financial system.

He said the master plan provided clear strategic objectives for the development of the market, one of which is the “encouragement of the development of stakeholders.” He stressed that the workshop was in line with the realisation of the particular objective.

The stride and significant achievements recorded by the masterplan, he said, were evidenced by the last ranking of Nigerian Islamic Finance as 13th on the global Islamic Finance Development Indicator 2021, showing assets under management valued at N2.3 billion, which is higher than countries like Bangladesh and Turkey.

“As you may be aware, the major difference between conventional finance and non-interest finance is the application of Shariah principles,” he said.

He continued: “The level of activities in the non-Interest capital market that we are currently experiencing in Nigeria affirms the overwhelming acceptance of NICM products by the country’s populace. This shows a strong appetite for other alternative forms of investments. Recently, the market witnessed the entrance of institutions offering non-interest capital market services/products and the oversubscription of the FGN and corporate Sukuk further buttresses the need for this workshop to encourage the development of Shariah experts for the market.”