* Says legislation will end Ponzi scheme 

* As states, LGAs can now approach capital Market for loans

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja 

The Senate has said that the Bill for the Repeal and Reenactment of the Investment and Securities Bill 2025 has set the stage for the $1 trillion economy proposed by the administration of President Bola Tinubu.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Capital Market, Senator Osita Izunaso, who also sponsored the bill, gave the assurance in an interview with journalists in Abuja Wednesday.

Tinubu had during his 2023 presidential campaigns promised to build a jumbo-sized economy, aiming for a $1 trillion GDP by 2030.

The senator said that the bill, which was assented to last week by President Tinubu, would end all forms of Ponzi schemes in Nigeria but grow the digital assets as well as cryptocurrency.

He said: “The Investment and Securities Act that has just been signed by Mr. President is a holistic enactment because we repealed the 2007 ISA and re-enacted it in 2025 with the aim of resetting the entire investment and securities law in Nigeria. 

“With what we have done today, for the first time in the history of Nigeria, the digital assets, as well as cryptocurrency has now been recognized as a form of security in Nigeria.

“This means that people can now trade with digital assets, people can now do cryptocurrency and it will be properly regulated by Security and Exchange Commission.

“What it means is that the virtual asset services providers, as well as the digital asset operators, are today under the purview of SEC.”

Izunaso said Nigeria is about the second or the third globally in terms of cryptocurrency and that a lot of money has passed through the country without it being regulated.

According to him, “Today, Mr. President is talking about $1 trillion economy. By signing this Act into law, it means that Nigeria is set for that $1 trillion economy.

“If we want to achieve the $1 trillion economy that Mr. President is envisaging, we must promote both the money market and the capital market. So today, the capital market has been reset for that purpose.

“I would also like to make it clear that the days of Ponzi insider trading and market manipulations are over in Nigeria. 

“Today, if you are caught in a Ponzi market arrangement, you risk going to jail for 10 years and also pay a fine of between N20 million to N40 million and all the money that you took from people will also be recovered from you. 

“Today, we have classified exchanges into two. You now have composite exchange and non-composite. 

“Composite means that you can do multiple trading while non-composite is about single security trading. So the whole idea is to enhance proper market regulation and also mitigate risk.

“So this new law is now promoting investors’ confidence, repositioning Nigeria because hitherto, the ISA of 2007 was not in compliance with the International Organisation for Securities Commissions. 

“Today, the new law is now arranged in a manner that is now consistent with IOSCO standards and regulations.

So you can trade anywhere now in Nigeria internationally, taking it from the records that is known, not the records that are not known as we were doing it before. So there are so many areas. 

“Today, we are making it more transparent for you to operate in the capital market.”

The senator added that the with the new law, the sub-nationals can now approach the capital market for long-term loans to finance their projects.

“With the new law, states and local governments can approach capital market for long-term funding.

“Instead of relying on federation accounts and commercial borrowing, states and the 774 LGAs can now go to capital market for long-term funding for the projects,” he said.

For now, he said only the Lagos Island Local Government Area has approach the capital market to secure loans to fund their projects.

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