By Munachimso Obienyi
In a bid to encourage market integration and provide better opportunities for economic prosperity of Nigeria and Ghana, the Securities and Exchange Commissions of both countries have signed a renewed Memorandum of Understanding.
Speaking during the signing ceremony which held in Accra recently, the Director General of the SEC Nigeria, Lamido Yuguda recalled that both countries had enjoyed a long period of progressive and mutually beneficial brotherhood and partnership with the same applying to both institutions which resulted in the first MoU in 2003.
Yuguda noted that the enduring relationship between the two jurisdictions is more amplified by the fact that Ghana and Nigeria both have the largest markets in the West African sub-region and added that this presents an opportunity to seize the advantage of the size and peculiarities, explore viable areas of cooperation, even as the countries continue to work assiduously with other stakeholders to integrate its markets and provide greater opportunities for the economic prosperity of its peoples and economies.
“In addition to its inherent benefits, this revised MOU will usher in an era of strengthened strategic cooperation and mutual support in the regulation of our markets towards the ultimate objective of enhancing their efficiency, transparency, depth, strength and indeed, global competitiveness”, Yuguda said.
The SEC DG stated that in the spirit of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and what nations in the region are hoping to achieve on a wider scale with WASRA, the collaboration will be a good pedestal for future and wider collaborations with other neighbors in the sub-region and beyond.
He said that with the revised MoU, both countries have developed a robust and inclusive document that is all-encompassing and reflective of current trends, emphasizing that the goal of the West African capital markets integration programme is the creation of an enabling environment for cross-border securities transactions and the integration of all capital markets jurisdictions in the ECOWAS region.
In his remarks, Director General of SEC Ghana, Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh said both Securities Commissions are ready to work together and develop the potentials of the capital market by examining issues and exploring ways to resolve them to make the capital markets work better, adding that;
“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 co-operation in the capital market. We had an MoU in 2003 which centred on collaboration and leveraging the potentials of the capital markets in the sub region. We are better off when we pull together to attain the potentials of our capital markets”.
