The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced a reduction in the time it takes for companies to obtain approval for offers.
The SEC said it had brought the timeframe from over a year down to just two weeks.
The commission said in a statement that approvals would now be granted within two weeks once all necessary documents are complete.
It said the move is to enhance the efficiency of the capital market and better support the development of Nigeria’s economy.
The commission noted that issuers are no longer experiencing delays in their applications due to various mechanisms adopted to ensure swift processing and timely approvals.
“The capital market is the lifeblood of any economy and is regulated by time. One of the first things we tackled was to reduce the time to market. I can proudly say that we have reduced the time to market from over a year to fourteen days,” the SEC stated.
The commission highlighted the success of the recent banking recapitalisation exercise, during which banks raised over N2.2 trillion from the capital market using the electronic offering platform.
“All of these transactions have been fully subscribed, and we have encouraged the use of technology. The e-offering platform means you do not have to use paper anymore to apply in this market. We hope to get better by the day,” the SEC added.
The commission emphasised the importance of technology in modernising the capital market, saying: “Technology is the in-thing, and the ISA 2007 has provided for that. The NGX has an e-IPO system that has proven to be very effective. All of the offers that came within this period were approved within 14 days as promised. In this year, we will make more use of technology in the work that we do.”
