The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has approved a $400,000 grant for Nigeria to help the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strengthen securities markets regulation and broaden market instruments.
The regional bank which announced the grant on Friday at the end of the agreement signing exercise said the funds would go towards strengthening risk-based supervision framework, regulation of derivatives and green bonds, and build capacity for green finance.
The AfDB said the grant would be sourced from the Capital Markets Development Trust Fund, a multi-donor fund administered by the Bank.
“This collaboration further underscores our mutual goal to grow our markets and create viable avenues for sustainable economic development for Nigeria and the region,” the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission Lamido Yuguda, said at the virtual signing ceremony.
Yuguda said the grant aligned with the priorities of AfDB’s Country Strategy for Nigeria, which envisages measures to stimulate capital market development to unlock financial resources for productive sector investments, infrastructure development and private sector growth.
The Senior Director of the AfDB Nigeria Country Department, Lamin Barrow, noted the urgency for speedy implementation of activities contemplated in this project.
At a time when countries are striving to build back better from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Barrow said improvement of the enabling regulatory and supervision framework would boost domestic resource mobilization efforts and leverage private sector contributions to achieve a greener, more environmentally sustainable and inclusive post-pandemic recovery.”
Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), Oscar Onyema, thanked AfDB and SEC for the partnership, to build in-house capacity at SEC, saying the NSE, issuers and investors in sustainable finance space, would help meet climate finance commitments in Nigeria.
The project, he said, would reinforce the implementation of SEC’s Nigeria Capital Market Master Plan 2015-2025 and its vision to position the Nigerian capital market as a competitive and attractive destination for portfolio investments.
