The Securities and Exchange Commission has called on the Federal Government to come up with more palliatives that will encourage more companies to list on the nation’s capital market.
Acting Director General of SEC, Ms Mary Uduk, made the call in Lagos while speaking on policies the government should initiate to support the capital market.
Uduk said, “I want to say that we appreciate government in initiating the Finance law. There are a number of initiatives that are in support of the capital market. We had expected more because we have been working on those initiatives for many years with Federal Inland Revenue Service and other relevant stakeholders. The government has through the Finance law answered some of our prayers.
“There are others that we thought they would have done, like the issue of taxes but they gave us what they thought we should have; we will continue to push for more tax reductions in different areas.
“We also expected that government will give us some other palliatives for some companies, to encourage them to come to the market. We are still working with the government to ensure these are done and this is just the beginning as the finance minister said.
“You don’t have to wait for government or National Assembly to repeal some laws or come up with new ones, it will take years but now with what they have done, we will start again to work towards next year.
“The focus is driving investments and for us to do that we must to bring capital into key areas, the issue of tax incentives is very critical. Infrastructure funds: government can’t fund infrastructure so private sector will do that. We should be able to have infrastructure funds and investment of course should enjoy tax incentives.
“Private equity funds that also drive investments in Small and Medium Enterprises, Venture Capital etc, these are critical areas and the government can look at private equity funds operators who invest in core areas of the economy like mining, agriculture. “
She said this group should be granted certain incentives, and the incentives would drive inflows of capital into those areas having more incentives that would drive investors into the market.