BY BEN AGANDE

ABUJA-The House of Representatives has said it will review the legal and regulatory framework for the nationalisation of banks in the country in order to protect shareholders’ investment in such banks in the future.

Chairman of the House Committee on Capital Markets and Institutions, Herman Hembe, who disclosed this at the inaugural meeting of the Committee weekend, said the review was to ensure that nobody hid behind the cover of making haste to act with impunity against the rules of the land.

According to him, “the haste by Securities and Exchange Commission and banks has led to breaches of rules guiding such commercial transactions.

“We will deploy all powers vested in this parliament to see that the right thing is done in all cases to restore investor confidence and re-order our capital market.”

The committee chairman said he had received quite a number of petitions from concerned Nigerians who knew what was going wrong and were worried enough to come to the House. “We have found out that rules and conventions are not being followed in the merger process, that there are situations where investors made very high bids for certain banks only for these banks to be sold for far less,” he said.

He maintained that the capital market needed a total overhaul of its organs and structures, from the apex regulatory body-the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, to the IST, NSE, issuing house, stockbrokers, capital market reporters and investing public.

Hembe said: “The committee in its oversight functions intends to legislate, by the review of the ISA, into effective functionality of all facilities and infrastructure that will provide enabling policies and environment for a vibrant and conducive capital market recovery and growth.

“In so doing, this House would have guaranteed good returns to businesses, business owners of all kind and to the government itself.”

Hembe said the inauguration of the committee was a call to duty; a time for quick decisive action that should be devoid of all political sentiments.

“ This is because the continuous stagnation of our capital markets means a continuous stagnation in financial doldrums. As long as our investments in the market continue to lose value by the day, the more our future earnings are being eroded,” he said.