Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a Community Development Service (CDS) group focused on investment education for corps members.
The initiative is designed to sensitise young Nigerians to the risks of fraudulent investment schemes and promote sound, legitimate investment practices.
According to a statement issued by SEC on Sunday, the MoU was recently signed by the Director-General of SEC, Dr Emomotimi Agama and the Director-General of NYSC, Brig.-Gen. Olakunle Nafiu.
It was also meant to promote financial literacy and sound investment habits among young Nigerians.
In addition, the collaboration will help in equipping corps members with essential knowledge and skills to identify and avoid Ponzi schemes and other illegal investment practices.
It will also help in enhancing public awareness campaigns against illegal financial schemes across all Local Government Areas in the country, among other objectives.
“Based on the scope of the collaboration, SEC shall develop and provide relevant and up-to-date educational content, materials, and training modules on capital market operations, safe investment practices, and the identification and avoidance of Ponzi schemes.
“SEC will also be responsible for the content, resources and funding of training sessions for selected corps members and NYSC supervisors who will serve as trainers and facilitators in their respective communities.
“On its part, the NYSC shall facilitate the integration of anti-Ponzi scheme education into its Education and Enlightenment CDS programme.
“This may involve dedicated sessions, workshops, or awareness campaigns during orientation camps and throughout the service year.
The parties shall collaborate on joint awareness campaigns, utilising various channels and platforms, including social media, traditional media, and community outreach, to disseminate information on safe investment and expose fraudulent schemes.
“They will also agree on mechanisms for sharing relevant data and reporting on the progress and impact of the collaborative initiatives.”
Speaking during the signing of the MoU, Agama recalled that the commission had been supporting the NYSC scheme by providing opportunities to hundreds of corps members to serve in the commission.
He said this demonstrated the management’s commitment to the success of the scheme.
Agama clarified, “We have NYSC members at the SEC in the range of 160-180 and there is no other institution in this country can actually boast of that.
“It shows our commitment to the NYSC scheme. We believe that we can train them. We can train them for the market, we can train them for the nation, we can train them for themselves and there is no corps member that has gone through the NYSC scheme at the SEC that has regretted it.
“For all of them, we consider them as staff of the SEC and not just anybody.
“They are not just individuals, they are people we believe in, they are people we trust in and we know that if we train and mold them well they will be better ambassadors of the SEC in the outside world,” he said.
In his remarks, the NYSC Director-General commended the SEC boss for making the signing of the MoU a reality, saying that the deal represents a Key Performance Index (KPI) for both organisations.
Nafiu also acknowledged the sundry initiatives being undertaken by the commission’s leadership in making people believe in the capital market.
He noted that it is good to catch the corp members young so they won’t patronise Ponzi schemes.
He assured, “We believe it’s the beginning of great things to come.
“After signing of the MoU, in the execution phase, we remain committed to every process to executing to the letter, the terms to the betterment of the larger Nigerian society.
