Chairman of Investments and Securities Tribunal(IST), Mr Siaka Idoko-Akoh, has called on for the return of retail investors and other Nigerians to Nigerian capital market for robust investments opportunities and other lucrative enterprising activities. Speaking to participants at a management retreat on Monday in Calabar, Idoko-Akoh said the retreat was intended to enable the newly appointed members of the Tribunal and senior management staff to exchange ideas in the running of the IST. He said that the government has perfected the risk reduction and risk prevention mechanisms needed to make Nigeria’s capital market a safe haven for investments.
The IST Chairman listed the mechanisms to include, efficient and timely adjudication of financial disputes, effective enforcement of the corporate governance code by the regulators, operation of investors’ protection fund that compensates certain categories of losses, among others.
His words:”What we are doing in this retreat is to exchange ideas and see how we can all contribute to the new vision of change in running the IST.
“The programme started a week ago with other staff. We have started on a good note and as an interactive forum, we must speak up and say things to move the Tribunal forward.
“We must rise and take up the challenge in restoring and sustaining investors’ confidence in Nigeria’s capital market sector through efficient and effective dispute resolution mechanism’’, he said.
Speaking further ,he added that no investor, local or external, will come into the Nigeria’s capital market if they have no confidence that the risk that surrounds investments will not be attended to and reduced. According to him:”No capital market players including brokers, shareholders and business managers would like to be involved in a long term protracted litigation that will make them not to be able to realise profits from their investment. “It was in the light of this that the Federal Government set up IST to come up with effective dispute resolution mechanism to minimise risks and losses in capital market,’ he said.
He reiterated to the participants that the law setting up the tribunal gives three months within which to dispose of any matter filed with it. On his part, Mr Edosa Aigbekean, who presented a paper on Corporate Governance in the Nigeria’s Capital market, said that only countries that observe good corporate governance attract multi-billion dollars investors into the capital market.
Aigbekean, an investment consultant said that the 2008 capital market crash brought to the fore issues of corporate governance in Nigeria capital market.
According to him, since then, stakeholders and regulators in the financial system have made significant efforts to promote good governance practices in the public companies. He added that it has become imperative to develop best corporate practices in order to establish a relationship between business managers and shareholders as well as stakeholders.
