The Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria and Ghana have signed a renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen the existing cooperation between their capital markets, and to also foster harmonization of African securities markets.
A statement by the director-general of the SEC Nigeria, Lamido Yuguda explained that the revised Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would encourage market integration and provide better opportunities for the economic prosperity of the countries.
He further stated that the move would enhance global competitiveness and would also enhance the efficiency and transparency of the capital markets in both countries.
In his words, ”The enduring relationship between our two jurisdictions is more amplified by the fact that Ghana and Nigeria have the largest markets in the West Africa sub-region.
”It will only be good that we use the advantage of our size and peculiarities to explore viable areas of cooperation.
”This is even as we continue to work with other stakeholders to integrate our markets and provide greater opportunities for our economic prosperity.”
Also commenting on the renewed MoU, the director-general of SEC Ghana, Daniel Tetteh, stated that both commissions were ready to work together and develop the potential of the capital market.
He disclosed that this Cooperation would be achieved by examining issues and exploring ways to resolve them for the capital markets to work better.
In his words, “This is a good framework that will benefit both countries and the sub-region. If you want to go far, it is better to go along with others and that is why we always have discussions on cooperation in the capital market.
“We had an MoU in 2003 which centered on collaboration and leveraging the potential of the capital markets in the sub-region. We are better off when we pull together to attain the potential of our capital markets.
“Some progress has been made in the past but we are not yet where we want to be, we could do more. Ghana and Nigeria can push forward in ways that will bring about the mutual benefits of leveraging the capital market. We need to have our markets open to each other so that we can achieve more and then attain one big capital market”.
