The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it has reduced time to market in its bid to ensure that the capital market is now more efficient and better positioned to aid the development of the Nigerian economy.

The director-general of SEC, Dr. Emomotimi Agama stated this during an interview in Abuja. He emphasised that the current management of the SEC has reduced the time it takes companies to obtain approval to two weeks.

According to Agama, “since we came on board, it is instructive to say that we have helped propel the economy. One of the things that has been a challenge before we came to the saddle was time to market, issuers will come to the market, and they will spend time before they get approval to be able to raise capital.

“The Capital market is the life and blood of any economy and of course this is actually regulated by time. So, one of the first things we have tackled since we came was to reduce the time to market. We have reduced the time to market from over a year to 14 days.”

Agama said, with the banking recapitalisation exercise, banks were able to raise over N2.2 trillion from the Nigerian capital market using the e-offering platform. He said, issuers did not experience delays in their applications because the commission had various mechanisms in place to ensure that applications were swiftly attended to and approvals received in record time.