Senate seeks approval of N10bn to finance literacy devt. in Capital Market

By Musa Baba Adamu

The Senate has asked the Minister of Finance, Mr Wale Edun, to approve N10 billion special funding to finance literacy development in the capital market.

This request was handed down through the Senate Committee on Capital Market, yesterday.

Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Osita Izunaso, made the appeal when Edun and the Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dr Emomotimi Agama appeared before the committee for an interactive session.

Izunaso who decried that only 5,000 investors were in the capital market, said that a special fund for the sector would help in boosting the it.

“We are asking for an intervention for capital allocation, a special funding to finance literacy development in the capital market because that is where the problem is.

“So, if you do that, we will be happy and the capital market will blossom. You will get our letter in that regard today after this meeting.

“That is the hallmark of what Sen. Victor Umeh said. Most of them (investors) lost their money through this capital market system. People lost money; people have not regained confidence and we are pushing them,” Izunaso said.

Sen. Victor Umeh (LP-Anambra) had earlier said that the capital market was a very essential indicator of “the health of any economy” and how the capital market operates across the world.

He said: “From the past experience from the capital market, a lot is expected to be done to restore public confidence on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

“Been able to restore public confidence is key to the operations in that sector. Why we said this is because what we saw was a shock and traumatic experience where investors in the market lost all their funds”.

For the Chairman Senate Committee on Finance, Sen. Sani Musa, he said that the request for N10 billion for literacy and enlightenment needed to be done.

“We need to see how we can take money out from the budget for the campaign,” he said.

In his remarks, the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, said that in as much as President Bola Tinubu has set up a target of 1 trillion Dollar economy, “what matters is the vibrancy of the economy.

“This is in terms of having economic stability at the macro level in terms of the revenues, budget deficits and inflation rates.

“Such that the coming together of these major variables can create a stable environment which will improve investment including investment in the capital market through the stock exchange.

“All these are under the purview of SEC.

We now have a much more stable macro economy for investments as a result of the President’s decisive, timely intervention”.