Ease Of Doing Business: SEC, FRC Collaborate To Improve Regulation
… As Dafinone, Madueke Call For Change Of Approach
The Security and Exchange Commission, SEC,Director General ,Dr Lamido Yuguda and Executive Secretary,Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria,Daniel Asapokhai have vowed to improve regulation in the country in furtherance of federal government’s policy on the ease of doing business.
The duo who stated this on the occasion of Issuers and Investors Alternative Dispute Resolution Initiative(IIADRI) Symposium held at the LCCI Exhibition Centre,Alausa –Ikeja,Lagos,urged Nigerians to be patient with regulators in the overall interest of the country.
Speaking at the event two lead speakers;Igbo Dafinone,Managing Partner,Crowe Dafinone and Mrs Cecilia Madueke,company secretary,Julius Berger Plc stressed the need for regulators in the financial sector to change their modus operandi.
The emphasized the need for regulators to have a human face in regulating operators,saying that the statusquo is oppressive and over-bearing at times.
Thus,their position that if the ease of doing business mantra of the federal government is to work out well,there is the need for the regulators to change from their sledge harmer approach.
They called for the reformation of multiple taxation policies in the country,incessant fines,frequent change of policies without adequate notice or consultation.
Another,two participants at the event ,Mr Kayode Adeleke and Alhaja Ayo Kudaisi accused regulators in the financial sector of being responsible for the increasing number on quoted companies who are de-listing from the Nigerian Stock Exchange and for the huge number of foreign investors escaping from the country.
Adeleke said the hardship cause by hardline regulation in place is also responsible for the many Nigerian youths who voting with their feets from Nigeria to foreign lands.
The Chairman of IIADRI,Mr Moses Igbrude in his remarks said the idea behind the yearly Issuers and Investors Clinic series are aimed at annually providing the needed platform where stakeholders within the Nigerian investment space meet to express views,interact and engage themselves in discussing topical issues.
Dafinone,however,said that the call for a more effective regulation is not a call for lax regulation or no regulation at all,saying that is being called for is for a sort of regulation that will enable Nigeria achieve its goal of ease in doing business in Nigeria,
The FRCN official at the event disclosed during the symposium that some the regulators are already meeting to ensure a single window in the area of making returns.
