Representatives pledge to strengthen laws against fraudulent operators

Restate commitment to listing of multinationals on NSE

More confidence may soon return to the nation’s capital market, if the House of Representatives gets through with laws to strengthen regulation of the market.

Addressing Journalists at a press conference in Lagos at the weekend, Hosue Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, argued that the regulators needed to be on top of their responsibilities, adding operators that abused the market would be penalised to restore investor confidence.

He attributed the major factor that led to the stock market crash to insider dealings and infractions, noting that operators that abused the market were not adequately sanctioned in the past.

“One of the issues we must address is the issue of sanction. If the people that perpetrate infractions are being dealt with, investors would have the confidence that the market still retains the capacity to deal with those that abuse the processes.

“But what we are doing now, we are amending certain principal enactments like the ISD, ISA, CAMA and other legislations to ensure that regulators are on top of their job.

“Regulators would maintain the legal tools and capacity to be able to punish severely, those who perpetrate malpractices in the market and stock brokers who are fraudulent,” he said.

On the listing of multinationals, Dogara explained that the parliament would look at the agreements of these companies with the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), noting that the parliament would compel them to list if it was stated on the agreement.

“Where there are clauses that require them to list and they have not done so through the power of oversight, we would ensure that it is done. They must be penalised in line with the agreement signed with BPE.

“There is an on-going discussions about strengthening those clauses in BPE to ensure that we emphasis that once a company is privatised you must list a reasonable part of the equity in the market and we must follow through to ensure that it is done,” he assured.

Dogara said that the house would ensure that this was done in respect of spectrum given out to telecommunication companies which, according to him, would expire soon.

“We will ensure that this will be a cardinal requirement that will compel them to list some part of the equity in the market. If we do that, we would be sure that sooner or later, we would be having some of these companies list on our market.”

He urged capital market operators to do everything within their powers to ensure that the market takes its position as number one in Africa.

He also assured that the House would use its legislative powers to ensure full implementation of the capital market 10-year Master Plan.