Overview

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nigeria is the apex regulatory authority of the Nigerian capital market. The SEC has evolved over time having started with the establishment of the Capital Issues Committee in 1962 by the government as an essential arm of the Central Bank of Nigeria. This was purely an ad-hoc, non-statutory committee, which later metamorphosed into SEC in 1979, following a comprehensive review of the Nigerian financial system, with the promulgation of SEC Decree No. 71 of 1979. Successive reviews of this earlier enactment led to the introduction of a new legislation, the Investments and Securities Act (ISA) No 45 of 1999. The ISA No. 45 of 1999 was repealed with the promulgation of the ISA No. 29 of 2007, which sets forth the functions of the SEC as well as confers it with its current powers. The 2007 legislation further enlarged the powers of the SEC, while saddling it with the dual responsibilities of: Regulating the capital market with a view to protecting investors; and developing the capital market in order to enhance its allocative efficiency, and pave way for a private sector led economy. The Act also set up for the SEC, a board of nine (9) members comprising the Chairman, the Director General, three Executive Commissioners, two Non-Executive Commissioners, Representatives of the Federal Ministry of Finance and Central Bank of Nigeria.