SEC, EFCC to strengthen collaboration against financial crimes

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), have agreed to collaborate in combating crime in the Nigerian capital market.

This agreement was sealed when the management of the two agencies met at the EFCC Corporate Headquarters in Abuja, weekend.

The Acting Director-General, SEC, Ms. Mary Uduk, who led her team, said the visit was necessary in order to close ranks in the face of re-awakening of Ponzi schemes, cybercrime, and other fraudulent activities that have engulfed the market in the last few years.

A statement from SEC, quoted Uduk as saying that the visit was aimed at revisiting the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two parties on January 19, 2017.

She was quoted: “Areas where the MoU seeks Cooperation of both Agencies includes training, secondment of middle cadre officers of the SEC to the EFCC and vice versa, cross boarder asset seizure, repatriation of stolen funds from the Capital market and prosecution of offenders. We have had reasons to work together on some cases in the past. There is no better time for the SEC and EFCC to collaborate more closely than now.”

Responding, the Ag. Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, expressed gratitude to the executive management of SEC for the gesture, and stressed the need to strengthen collaboration between the agencies.

Magu also assured SEC of his Commission’s support in ensuring that clauses embedded in the MoU are executed given the magnitude of fraudulent activities currently ongoing in the country.

He reiterated the need for joint training of staff of both organisations, adding that there is a need to review the MoU to achieve the organisations set objectives.

On the rising spate of Ponzi schemes in Nigeria, Magu stressed the need for more sensitisation campaigns between the SEC and the EFCC to ensure that unsuspecting Nigerians do not continue to lose their hard earned money.