The Federal Government is to inject the sum of N6.5 billion into the Capital Market, Chairman, Senate Committee on Capital Market, Senator Isiaka Adeleke has said.
The information is coming even as Senators and members of the House of Representatives Wednesday commenced the process of shoring up the dwindling fortunes of the country’s Capital Market.
At a joint press briefing of the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Capital Market, the lawmakers said that they have resolved to rejuvenate the Capital Market to enable it play active role in revamping the economy of the country.
Senator Adeleke who spoke on stakeholders’ forum on “realizing the full potentials of the Nigerian economy through proactive capital market legislation,” said that the government planned to inject N6.5 billion to shore up the fortunes of the Capital Market as well as to protect investors’ funds.
He noted that the era of change in the country called for major shift in approaches to seeking solutions to political, social, and economic challenges facing the country.
Senator Adeleke said that the National Assembly is aware of the dwindling fortunes of the Capital Market and by extension the economy.
He said, “As a mono-product economy, with oil and gas constituting the life-blood, the global downturn has continued to negatively affect meaningful growth and development.
“As a parliament we strongly believe that the downward slide of Nigeria’s economy provides the best opportunity for major stakeholders to begin to return the economy to vibrancy. We are confident that the Capital Market can and should perform this role.”
Senator Adeleke also said that the National Assembly planned to enact legislation that would compel idle funds in bodies like Pension Funds to be used to stimulate the Capital Market to play expected role in the growth of the economy.
The two chambers of the National Assembly, he said, “came to the jolting realization that the Nigerian economy cannot fully develop without making the capital market the hub or pivot of its developmental strides.”
He said, “This market has long been neglected and denied its rightful and strategic role in our march towards economic recovery. The Capital Market is a veritable institution for the mobilization, allocation and utilization of long term funds, not just by the federal but also for states and local governments.”
He added that the forum which intends to create an enabling legal environment for the achievement of the recommendations of the Capital Market Master Plan (2015 2025) is primed towards the rejuvenation of the economy.
According to him, “the desire of the Joint Committee on the Capital Market and Institutions in this direction is to focus its legislative work in making the recommendations of the Master Plan the catalyst for achieving the infrastructural and development needs of a diversified national economy.”
He said that the Joint Committee on the Capital Market will be interested in legislations that will encourage Nigerian entrepreneurs to have access to long term funds for productive activities as well as enhance their capacity to create employment opportunities.
He also said that the committee would work to create liquidity and investment opportunities for both foreign and local investors as well as facilitate the translation of pension funds into investments for national economic development.
“Laudable as these objectives are, we reason that they can only be achieved when stakeholders in the capital market are able to discuss issues and challenges that will bring about an optimal use of the capital market and mainstream the Nigerian capital market as a critical component in national economic policy.
As legislators, we are ready to retool the laws guiding capital market operations or make new ones that would accelerate the relevance of the capital market in national economic development. Therefore, we seek to grow the Nigerian capital market to be in a position to contribute meaningfully to economic growth and development.
“This will make the capital market spearhead development in key sectors of the national economy such as oil and gas, agriculture, tourism and hospitality,” Adeleke said.