LAGOS – Some shareholder groups have called on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to ensure strict regulation of the Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) operating in the nation’s capital market.
They told newsmen in separate interviews in Lagos that the regulation was imperative to protect investors’ interest.
CIS is an investment scheme that involves collecting money from different investors and then combining all the money collected to fund investment.
It is also referred to as mutual funds.
Mr Godwin Anono, Chairman, Nigeria Professional Shareholders Association, said that the commission should ensure prompt release of information by CIS promoters to the unit holders.
Anono said that dearth of information was affecting the growth of the investment scheme in the Nigerian capital market.
He said that investors had lost interest in mutual funds due to lack of information, noting that most of them had not declared any dividend for years now.
“Unit holders don’t know what they are doing, they just collect our money and after that no information or annual general meeting,’’ Anono said.
He said that the market would not move forward with such an attitude, adding that SEC should suspend companies that failed to release information at the appropriate time.
The shareholder activist said that investors would rather invest in equities they would monitor on daily basis.
Mr Boniface Okezie, President, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, called for public enlightenment programmes on the funds rudiments for proper understanding and enhanced patronage.
Okezie said that there was need for further investment education because investors would only invest in what they know.
“Enlightenment campaigns will enable investors to know what to expect in the form of benefits accruable to such investments in the long run,’’ he said.
