By CHIAZO OGBOLU

The Vice President, Sen. Kashim Shettima, has tasked the West African capital markets on digital products to curb youth’s interest in Ponzi schemes.

Shettima said this at the opening ceremony of the third West Africa Capital Market Conference (WACMaC) with the theme: “Infrastructural Deficit and Sustainable Financing in an Integrated West African Capital Market”, on Wednesday in Lagos.

Shettima was represented at the event by Dr Tope Fasua, Special Adviser to the President on Economic Affairs in the Office of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The vice president urged the West Africa capital markets to deliberate on how to meet young West Africans online through digital investment products.

Shettima, who lamented the surge in cryptocurrencies and other arcane instruments and trades in West Africa which usually end on a sad note, urged market operators to tackle the challenge.

“I beseech you to deliberate in your meetings on how to meet the challenges where they reside presently. Meet young West Africans online. Create Apps that they can relate with.

“Use blockchains where necessary, to show transparency and to give them some of the control that they seek.

“Show them value, solidity, history, structure, resilience, sustainability, so that rather than invest in legless risky ventures, where they see their monies disappear on daily basis.

“They will learn the beauty of capital market investment, and will through your efforts, invest in the companies and instruments that will guarantee the sustainable future of West Africa.

“I want to say that we’ve only just begun. We have seen the surge of cryptocurrencies and other arcane instruments and trades in West Africa and not all the stories had happy endings.

“We must understand that though savings maybe shrinking across the world and economic crisis have caused the shrinkage in investable funds, still those funds are there and only the truly innovative will access them.

“These times calls for innovation, ingenuity, thinking ahead and at the speed of light, inventiveness, diversification of products offerings, continuous education and interaction with the public at every platform, online and offline,” Shettima said.

He added: “We have to do all that it takes legitimately to establish a solid base for our capital market to weed out unscrupulous elements that get into the market and find ways of confusing folks about their registration and affiliations with capital market regulators just to run scams on people. I know that SEC has always been pursuing a lot of these people around.”

He also said the infrastructural deficit in the West African sub- region would be better tackled from inside and not through foreign borrowing alone.

Shettima noted that the capital market should be well harnessed to address infrastructure gap in Nigeria and across the region.

According to him, the centrality of capital market to Nigeria’s development trajectory, especially to the evolution of corporate sector, industries and most importantly infrastructural development, cannot be over emphasized.

He said: “It is a time of intense competition among nations and resources, and with advancement in technology, nations are able to reach to nations with their products just as businesses have their fingers in billions of pockets the world over.

“Innovation has turned out more than ever to be both a potent advantage and disadvantage depending on one’s readiness to engage.

“Indeed, it is said that the best way to prepare for the future is to create it. Where are we on this?

“Whereas capital market development in any nation is not an easy task, much less its maintenance and sustainability.

“We must commend the efforts of entities, governments, corporate and individuals across West Africa who have over the time come together to put in the shift that got us here.

“There are three exchanges in the sub region, Nigeria, Ghana and Cote I’voire with others coming up. The question is why have other West African nations not developed their exchanges?

“How do they hope to leverage on the advantage of capital formation, corporate governance and also to get companies fund in them to someday play big in the global stage?”

He, therefore, urged West Africa regulators and operators to think hard to find liquidity, growth and sustainability in their markets.

“If stock exchanges in developed countries still thrive like New York, London, Amsterdam, Bombay and Egypt there is no reason why West African exchanges should not thrive.

“There must be reasons why these entities are still thriving and those reasons are the fundamental underpinnings that must be explored to gain purpose, to find strength, to discover resilience and establish sustainability.

“My role is to encourage your work and to through these words imbue you with some additional impetus, purpose, clarity and strength as it is not over until it is over. And it should never be over for the capital market in West Africa and I am glad to see the co-operation that has been going on among you” he added.

In his opening remark, the Director- General of the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) and Chairman of West Africa Securities Regulators Association (WASRA), Mr Lamido Yuguda, stated WACMaC was conceived as a platform to address crucial issues related to the growth and development of regional and continental capital markets.

Yuguda said the conference was jointly hosted by WASRA, the Economic Community of West African States, the West Africa Capital Market Integration Council (WACMIC), and the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI).

Yuguda said, “In 2010, WACMIC marked the inception of our collaborative effort to create a seamless and unified capital market within West Africa.

“Five years later, the formation of WASRA further solidified this commitment to harmonising the regulatory environment for financial securities issuance and trading.

“WACMIC and WASRA bring together the securities exchanges, central securities depositories and commissions of the sub-region, comprising Cape Verde, Ghana, Nigeria, and the Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA), with Morocco as an observer member.

“Our mission, as outlined in the ECOWAS Commission Treaty, is to facilitate the issuance and trading of financial securities across the region.”

Yuguda said the integration project in the region was divided into three phases: Phase I facilitated trading between the stock exchanges in the sub-region, through the Sponsored Access model.

He said the Phase II currently underway, is set to harmonise and validate regulations for the trading and settlement of securities in West African capital markets through the Qualified West Africa Broker (QWAB) model.

“This phase with a target completion date of June 2024 is made possible through funding from the African Development Bank and is implemented by the West African Monetary Institute,” he said.

He said Phase III holds the promise of delivering a fully integrated market and the establishment of the West Africa Securities Market, which would reflect securities listed on all member exchanges.

“This phase is expected to deepen West African capital markets, attract institutional and retail investors across member countries, and broaden the range of capital market instruments and issuances for funding private and public enterprises and infrastructure in the region,” he added. (NAN)

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