The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has pledged to work with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to ensure a reduction in virtual trading manipulations.

The acting director-general of SEC, Emomotimi Agama, pledged in Abuja on Tuesday when a team from the EFCC led by its executive chairman, Ola Olukoyede, visited him.

Mr Agama said the SEC would cooperate with EFCC to achieve national objectives of making sure that illegality was not allowed to thrive.

”Our desire is for us to strengthen the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) we have and ensure it is more effective in dealing with current issues.

”Only last week, we met the fintech community, and we made it clear to them that the SEC will not condone illegal trading on any platform, especially Peer-to-peer (P2P).

”It is a dangerous trend, and we cannot allow it to continue. This collaboration is necessary for us to get out of this forex crisis,” the DG said.

He said the commission was planning an economy regulatory hub where requests would be uploaded, and other regulators would respond immediately, thereby reducing delays.

”We will do all we need to do to ensure our markets are free from manipulations. We will enforce where necessary to send a strong message that it is no longer business as usual.

“We are examining our virtual regulations to cover all areas and are open to reviews to improve the document and ensure a well-regulated market.

”We are striving to close all the gaps, and this cooperation will enable us to block every gap in our bid to regulate the virtual space and give comfort to Nigerians,” said Mr Agama.

The EFCC executive chairman said forex malpractices and crises were detrimental to any economy.

He said virtual traders’ activities needed to be checked because they were destroying the country’s economy.

“We are enforcers and not regulators, so we need the SEC to ensure people play by the rules. We have done a lot to discourage people from doing forex malpractices.

”We must ensure that people play by the rules and ensure compliance to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) to our economy,” said Mr Olukoyede.Olukoyede.

The EFCC boss said the fight against corruption was a collaborative effort.

He commended the SEC for its guidelines on virtual assets and pledged the EFCC’s willingness to ensure stakeholders’ compliance.

(NAN)