On April 21, 2017, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, as part of our public enlightenment campaign, made a post via our social media platforms titled: “Red Alert on Capital Markets Scam”.

The post, a routine public enlightenment, was meant to educate investors of the various antics of fraudsters in the Nigerian capital market and not any way intended to cast aspersions on the reputation of The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE or Exchange), the CSCS Plc and their principal officers as colluding with fraudsters; rather both firms are strategic partners of EFCC in the fight against capital market frauds.

lign=”justify”>It would be recalled that The NSE on October 4, 2013 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the EFCC to tackle market infractions and abuse. 

This partnership has successfully opened direct lines of communication and information sharing with the EFCC for reporting and investigations of incidents leading to a more proactive law enforcement and swift recovery of stolen securities.

The MOU also provides for a two-way training programme where we train NSE staff on the proactive prevention of capital market frauds and NSE trains our staff about key activities of the capital market.

According to Adesola Kolawole Amusan, Head, Capital Markets and Insurance Unit, EFCC, “we are aware that the NSE undertakes series of market surveillance activities necessary to rid the market of fraudster and has acquired NASDAQ’s SMARTS Market Surveillance platform to power its compliance program which is necessary to monitor the market for manipulation, including spoofing and layering. We encourage investors to subscribe to trade alerts and other services by the Exchange and CSCS that will enable them monitor their investments and report infractions as soon as they are noticed”.

He further said that “investors should familiarize themselves with the Requirements For Inter-Member Transfers From Suspended/Inactive/Expelled Stockbroking Firms as contained on the website of NSE (www.nse.com.ng)”.

It is worth noting that this collaboration between EFCC, NSE and CSCS has been yielding fruits as crimes are being prevented and prosecutions within the Nigerian capital market have increased.

Currently more than 22 cases referred to the EFCC by the Exchange are at different stages of investigation or prosecution.