Regulators must avoid double standards – ISAN

The Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria has called on regulators of the Nigerian capital market to ensure that rules and guidelines for the market are applicable to all participants and operators regardless of their status.

The National Coordinator, ISAN, Sunny Nwosu, told our correspondent that in order to attract more Nigerians to participate in the market and in view of the current economic challenges, it was important for all shareholders to be subjected to uniform standards.

He said a situation where retail shareholders feel that their problems were treated differently from those of institutional investors would only jeopardise efforts to develop the market and increase participation.

Nwosu said, “They (regulators) should make sure there are no double standards in the market. However big a person is, once an individual commits an infraction, such person must be brought to book.

“That way, those coming (into the market) after such a person would have full respect for rules. That is when Nigerians that spend their small savings in growing the market will have more confidence that the market is for all of us.”

Stressing that the challenges being faced by retail investors were numerous, he explained that it was important for those issues to be addressed properly as the retail investors were key to market stability and growth.

“The Nigerian shareholders, especially the retail shareholders are not in a hurry to exit or rupture the market. It is the big ones, whether you call them foreign shareholders or money bags in Nigeria, that are rupturing the market,” he said.

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission, in partnership with the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, announced the establishment of an anti-corruption and transparency monitoring unit to check the menace of public corrupt practices.

The Acting Director-General of the commission, Mr, Mounir Gwarzo, said that fighting corruption and institutionalising transparency was a goal that both the SEC and ICPC collectively shared.

“As the apex regulator of the Nigerian capital market, we demand the highest levels of transparency from entities we regulate, we therefore hold ourselves to similar standards in our own operations,” he said.

Reacting to the development, Nwosu, who welcomed all efforts to combat corruption in the capital market, however, said it was not worth making a fuss over.

He said this was because such a partnership did not need to be in place before SEC could effectively regulate the market.

He said what was important was to determine whether there was corruption in the market or not and once any one was found guilty of corruption, the person should be handed over to the relevant security agency, regardless of whether there was a partnership or agreement.

“Do they need to partner before they hand over corrupt cases to them? Sometimes, we blow certain things out of proportion. I do not think they need to partner before an identified corruption case is referred to ICPC,” he said.