The House of Representatives Committee on Finance has challenged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to exceed its 2026 revenue target by at least 20 per cent, while commending the capital market regulator for improving its financial sustainability through stronger revenue generation and cost-cutting measures despite operating without government funding.
The commendation came on Tuesday during the National Assembly’s 2026 Revenue Monitoring Exercise in Abuja, where lawmakers reviewed the Commission’s revenue performance and fiscal outlook.
Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Hon. Saeed Musa Abdullahi, said the SEC had recorded significant progress in strengthening its finances and urged the Commission to sustain the momentum amid Nigeria’s fiscal challenges.
‘DG, you have done significantly well. We have followed the progress of the SEC over the years and urge you to keep the flag flying. We will continue to celebrate you when you do well,’ Abdullahi said.
Describing the oversight exercise as a performance assessment rather than a fault-finding mission, the lawmaker encouraged the Commission to outperform its revenue projections.
‘You have told us your revenue projection for 2026, but we believe you can do more. We urge you to surpass your projection by at least 20 per cent, or even more,’ he said.
Responding, SEC Director-General, Dr. Emomotimi Agama, defended the Commission’s funding model, noting that the regulator remains financially independent in line with the principles of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), even though it receives no budgetary allocation from the Federal Government.
According to him, the Commission finances its operations solely from income generated through the capital market while continuing to remit funds to the Federal Government.
‘Going by IOSCO principles, the SEC is expected to be financially independent. The government is supposed to provide support for the running of the Commission. However, due to the paucity of funds, all the money used to fund the Commission comes from the market. The SEC does not receive any funding from the government; rather, it pays money to the government,’ Agama said.
He explained that once the Commission’s revenues are lodged in its account with the Central Bank of Nigeria, statutory deductions are automatically made before the SEC can access the balance.
‘When these funds hit our account with the CBN, deductions are made directly by the government. We do not have access to the funds before the deductions are effected,’ he added.
Agama also stressed that the Commission had deliberately avoided increasing regulatory charges on capital market operators to finance its activities, noting that such a move could place unnecessary pressure on the market.
Instead, he said the SEC secured approval from the Minister of Finance to retain 20 per cent of its internally generated revenue through a waiver on statutory deductions, enabling it to meet operational needs without imposing additional costs on stakeholders.
‘We are regulators and are not expected to ask the market for money. With the kind permission of the Honourable Minister of Finance, we obtained a 20 per cent waiver on deductions to ensure our operations are not hindered,’ he said.
In a further boost to market regulation, Agama disclosed that the Commission had secured a grant from the African Development Bank to procure a state-of-the-art market surveillance system. The platform, expected to be deployed later this year, is designed to enhance market monitoring, improve investor protection and align Nigeria’s capital market supervisory framework with international best practices.
The development comes as the SEC intensifies reforms aimed at strengthening market integrity, deepening investor confidence and improving regulatory efficiency under the recently enacted Investments and Securities Act.