Capital Market: Securities & Exchange Commission seeks collaboration on dispute resolution

Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has expressed its readiness to collaborate with relevant Alternative Dispute Resolution professionals as a means to ensuring effective dispute resolution in the capital market.

Director General of the SEC, Mr. Lamido Yuguda, said this is key in sustaining investment in the capital market.

The SEC DG stated this when the Abuja Chapter of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) led by its chairman, Mr Sola Ephraim-Oluwanuga, held a meeting with him in Abuja  on Wednesday.

Yuguda stated that the need for a veritable dispute resolution mechanism has long been recognized in the capital market. He said that traditional litigious and adversarial dispute resolution mechanism has fallen short of achieving its purpose, adding that investment in the sector would suffer, if disputes among investors are not well resolved.

“The whole nature of the market is that people come together to make investments. But along the line, something happens and the same people actually fall out.

“And the problem with investment is that if the true parties to an investment fall out, investment falls. We understand that both parties usually cling to their positions but there is a superior situation which could benefit both parties.

“This is where an arbitrator is needed to actually bring them to that position. And that arbitrator, who is seen as independent, performs his professional duty by talking to the parties,” said the SEC Director-General.

He said the visit by the members of the institute could not have come at a better time, assuring that the commission partnering with institute whose members are specialized in area of dispute resolution is actually highly beneficial to both the SEC and practitioners in the capital market.

Earlier, the CIArb Chairman, Mr. Ephraim-Oluwanuga, said the institute was desirous of partnering with the SEC to deepen the access to justice in the Securities Industry.

He said CIArb has trained competent International arbitrators with demonstrable experience in capital market issues, adding that the institute can also assist the SEC in training and capacity building of its personnel.

“CIArb can train subject matter experts on securities dispute resolution. Also, industry may also put CIArb in its agreement as an appointing authority to any dispute involving arbitration, whilst preferring its members to serve as party nominated arbitrators in the sector,”  he added.