Operators in the Nigerian digital assets market space must register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) if they are to do business in country, the Director General of the Capital Markert regulatory authority, Lamido Yuguda has said.
Yuguda who spoke during the post-Capital Market regulatory Committee (CMC) meeting said registration of the operators would help the Commission effectively discharge its responsibility of effectively monitoring the digital market space.
As part of its efforts to effectively monitor the market, Yuguda said SEC has introduced some regulatory measures including the release of a set of rules for the digital assets platforms.
He said any operator in the digital assets market space wishing to do business in Nigeria must visit the Commission to be registered as an operator.
These rules and regulations, he said, were designed to ensure investors were well protected.
“So, all the necessary safeguards have been added to the new rules and at the moment because of the activities of certain platforms that have not been registered, but were operating in Nigeria illegally, we have had to take a second look at these rules so that we can make them much better for regulation of digital assets space.
“We are encouraging all bonafide operators to come forward to the Commission to register. SEC will take very firm actions, working in concert with other regulatory agencies of government to make sure that these operators that are not licensed are actually prosecuted and shutdown,” Yuguda said.
He said in recent times, SEC has been sensitive to the operation of unlicensed operators in view of the negative impact this have on the market.
On the banking sector recapitalization he said the regulations already put in place are enough to make the process seamless.
“We have been working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to ensure that all operators in the digital assets space that wish to operate in Nigeria should come to the Commission to be registered as an operator, plan and discuss all the necessary details to this process.
“We have also been working internally in the Commission, looking at the experience with past exercises and making sure that this exercise avoids all the hiccups in the past and actually come out very well and smooth. So, we have also been working with some market participants to ensure that this process, which we expect to start this quarter, is done in a very smooth manner, making sure that SEC and the market and the banks avoid all the mistakes we have in past exercises, highlight the benefits of the exercises and also make sure that investors that would invest in these offers are well protected.”
On whether the bank recapitalization exercise would be digital, Yuguda said not long ago, the Commission already had an offer in the market that was actually paperless from end to end.
Therefore, he said the Commission would prefer the inclusion of everyone, including young demographic class, who are more used to filling electronic forms.
“We are coming out with the guidelines. We want eeveryone to look at these guidelines carefully and see what the SEC is proposing. This is really our preference and we know that it is possible. We have been discussing with the various market operators and I am very optimistic that there will be some kind of digital end to it, whether it will be 100% digital, that is what I cannot tell you now. Certainly, there will be a digital element to the offer,” he said.
