SEC Trains Judges, Others to Handle Commodities Market Disputes
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has embarked on capacity building for judges and top officials of the Investment and Securities Tribunal (IST) as part of efforts to handle Commodities’ market-related disputes.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the training holding at the Capital Market Training Institute(CMTI) in Abuja, the Acting Director General of SEC Ms Mary Uduk said the move has become necessary so that judicial and non-judicial staff of the investment tribunal would be better equipped with relevant knowledge to effectively make informed decision on disputes arising from commodities market issues.
Uduk who was represented at the occasion by Acting Executive Commissioner Operations of SEC, Mr. Isyaku Tilde went down memory lane that “as part of its implementation of the 10-year Capital Market Master Plan, constituted a Technical Committee on Commodities Trading Ecosystem, adding that the mandate of the Committee was to identify challenges of the existing framework/infrastructure and develop a roadmap for a vibrant ecosystem.
According to her, the Technical Committee set up to develop a roadmap for reviving the Commodities Trading Ecosystem came up with over forty (40) recommendations to be implemented in 4 phases between 2018 and 2025.
She noted that the report also observed the knowledge gap that exists within the ecosystem and recommended the need for capacity building on the Commodities Trading ecosystem to stakeholders and to the general public.
She further observed that the Investment and Securities Tribunal statutorily has jurisdiction over securities-related matters, and this includes the commodity trading market, stressing that the successful implementation of the Technical Committee’s report will undoubtedly lead to more activities in the market and this will result to disputes.
The SEC boss also said that Commodity Trading ecosystem provides a sophisticated human interaction of which the inevitable disputes will call upon the IST.“On review of the course content, I am very confident that we are on the right track at building the needed capacity for an efficient market regulation and investor’s protection”, she said.
Uduk said: “It is without doubt that investors protection is at the heart of market regulation. This implies that the most important participant class in the capital market continuum is the investor hence the overriding need for strong regulation and adequate safeguards coupled with an efficient dispute resolution mechanism.
She added that the Ecosystem is an organized commodities market consisting of multiple players that interact to form the agricultural value chain. They include commodity exchanges, farmers, merchants, aggregators, processors/producers, commodity market operators, warehouse operators, collateral managers, banks, insurance companies, clearing houses, and logistic companies.“It is important to organize this market to enhance its efficiency, growth and competitiveness which will better position it to play a strong enabling role in food security, employment generation and economic diversification which is the main trust of this government”, she concluded.
In his speech at the occasion, the Chairman of the Investment and Securities Tribunal (IST) Mr. Siaka Isaiah Idoko-Akoh Esq commended the initiative of SEC in organizing the training programmes and tasked the beneficiaries who are judges and non-judicial staff of the IST to be effectively involved by paying the needed attention to acquire the knowledge so as to tackle disputes arising from commodities market.
