No Investment, No Employment – Idoko-Akoh

CAPTIAL MARKET

No Investment, No Employment – Idoko-Akoh.

By Uche Olu and Chukwuma Onyeabor 

Speaking with the publisher and editor-in-chief of Iconblazemagazine online portal Leo Ezekiel, the honourable chairman and Chief Executive officer of Investments and Securities Tribunal said that if there is no investment, that there may not be employments for the teeming youths of the nation. 

Speaking further at the function suites of the Sheraton hotels and Towers, Ikeja, Lagos at two-day sensitization workshop for capital market stake holders, legal practitioners and investors in Lagos and South West, Nigeria with a theme: The Nigeria Capital Market: Dispute Resolution Mechanism and the Role of IST. 

Speaking further the Honourable Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Investments and Securities Tribunal said that the two lead speakers of the day one of the conference actually did not disappoint the eclatic audiences with their lucid choice of words and simple delivery adding that James Ukoh Kalu Igwe SAN and Bolaji Balogun gave uncommon insights to the topics they dwelled on.  Speaking again the honourable Chairman and CEO of IST said that he totally concurred with the scholarly submission of the erudite scholars (JUK Igwe and Bolaji Balogun). Where they opined that rule of law and corporate governance would definitely enhance the economic for thepublic good of the citizenry adding that the government at all levels i.e. Federal, State and Local Government Areas should pragmatically and critically employ the indexes of rule of law thereby all persons are equal before the existing laws of the land adding that Bolaji Balogun submitted that in 2030 the population of the nation would be about 500,000,000 million persons as Nigeria is the seventh, most populated nations in the entire globe adding the government has a great deal of assignment in her hands to tackle the problems of housing, security, health care deliveries, unemployment, communication, transportation, judiciary et al adding that these crucial hassles needed a careful planning and programming so that the entire citizenry would be adequately cared for. 

Speaking again the chairman and CEO of IST Idoko-Akoh says that he actually concurred that corporate governance would reduce corruptions from the body polity adding that the distinctions must be drawn between fines of various kinds, suspension as the Tribunal has helped Nigeria to build up the stoppage of criminal cases adding the tribunals have zones in Lagos, Enugu, Port-Harcourt etc. And, again he says that he absolutely agreed that there is provision that no hearing date is fixed until the necessary documents are sorted out as Item one: 2000,5000,20,000, 25,000 are okay adding that the rule of law entrances the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria as well as show them proofs documents that would enhance the GDP of the country the application of rule of law adding that experts witnesses conferred the tribunal the powers to have experts evidence that must be guided with principles that are backed up by independents for example Omisere vs Aregbosola, Ngige vs Obi, Ogolo vs Ogolo. 

He says that 182 shares were mistakenly credited to someone is account and that the SEC asked him to buy off the shares since there were credited wrongly to him, rather the young man sued them for their mistakes adding that the roles of tribunal should be seen as the index of rule of law because it enhances the GDP of the nation. He further opined that the tribunal occupies the golden place for the investors in the country adding that if the Tribunal is appreciated in the economic growth of Nigeria and this would absolutely give investors a good place of investing. 

Speaking with Iconblazemagazine online portal the chairman and CEO of IST said that all Bolaji Balogun posited in his paper were correspondingly perfect   and   accepted adding that al the problems of Nigeria are inside capital market, as the government does not have the wallet to care of all Nigerians. That the United Nations told all national government to allocate 25% of her annual budget to education, but, very sadly, he opined that Nigeria’s government only allocates 7% to education which is the major reason that there is still high rate of uneducation in the body polity agreeing that the biggest challenges in the land is unemployment adding that Somalia, Sudan etc are failed states, but very sadly they are not lazy people as they had vision to live a better life, but, again, their leaders have made life so short for all and Sundry. 

He said that Balogun touched on private capital and private investment adding that there is area of prosperity of infrastructure, power renewable energy gas, transport, broadbank, mining, education, health care, Agriculture without electricity as there were no means of transportation to the general market is not encouraging adding that over 30years that Lake Chad has dried up and that has caused the Fulani herdsmen to move their cows down South looking for water and all. He said that in Brazil they had cows, but, they do not move them about like the ways it is done here in Nigeria rather there are moved cold chain meat. He said that in Dubai that there have cameras everywhere of which they used to monitor all the activities which is not in existence in Nigeria adding that when jobs are created, people grow as they would be able to send their children to schools. 

Balogun concurred that government cannot do it also one adding that all hands must be on deck to improve the economic as the GDP stands at N400,000 billion dollars. Balogun said that in 1946 was when the first bond issued, but, due to bad management of the economic Nigeria is the 25^th world economic. Balogun said that the Nigeria capital market participants are broker, issuing house, flow of money in the capital market, primary market, secondary market, sellers of shares, equity is the always the smallest of the market. The day two touched on the roles of CSCS as settlement intermediary in the capital market and it was presented by the general manager, corporate affairs of CSCS Dr. Joseph Mekihlluira who told the participants about the CBO Risk that if anybody buys shares, if a share is closing on Monday and people buy automatically the share is voided adding that its concept needs to be understood adding that what used to take six months to be fully processed now takes three to five working days to process. Dr. Mekihlluira and that despite all the checks and balances put in place by IST, yet frauds still persist in the system adding that the roles of IST in driving the economic cannot be under estimated. 

The second lecturer Dr. David Okolo registrar started his lecture by posing a question who is a registrar. He says that a registrar is a professional and who sets up the security of the primary arm of the security adding that registrars are engaged in corporate governance, issuing house, brokers, solicitor as the main product of the practice is the prospectus. Dr. Okolo said that the registrars make sure that the documents are properly distributed to the banks, issuing houses etc adding that the agent summarized whatever data they had analyzed as not all the documents and applications for warded are accepted, as some of the operators submit unsigned applications and there are rejected. He said that the registrars are saddled with responsibility of checking the applications on behalf of the regulators and he narrated to the audience that when they started in the 1980s that the offer of application were as how as 10,000 but, now the offer application are over 500,000 as in some cases not all the application are accepted, the money is returned to the applicant thorough the issuing houses adding that the central Bank of Nigeria would carry out a verification exercise that may last up one month. Dr. Okolo said that if a name changes, that the registrar must be updated with some legal document of the change of name, address, and signature form adding that some persons acquired shares as misses and when they finally maimed and because Mrs that registrar must be updated, as well as when a shareholder dies, a letter of administration would be needed as registrar would employ lawyers to assist in checking the documents if the documents are correct. Dr. Okolo said registrars pay out dividends, mail them to the share holders, the registrars attend to share holders and the registrars are responsible to play lots role in improving the investors’ confidence in the capital market. 

Speaking with inconblazemagazine online portal Abdulmuni Mohammend an investor said that the two days training has actually opened his eyes on the capital market. He said that he adequately believed in the expose the speakers presented adding that capital market has lots of roles of play in building up the economic objectively and productively. He said that federal government needs to provide an enabling environment for investors to set up their business for the public good of al and sundry. He commended the investment securities Tribunal management for their fore sightedness in showcasing the two days seminar.