With Nigeria inching towards total social and economic lockdown, the Securities and Exchange Commission, (SEC), has introduced electronic filing and processing of applications, extension of deadline on 2019 annual reports and Q1 2020 reports, postponement of the Q1 Capital Market Committee meeting earlier scheduled for April 23, 2020.
The Commission stated that henceforth applications shall be filed electronically while pending ones and requests by CMOs for update of information would be processed online. However, fresh applications for registration of Capital Market Operators are suspended until further notice. Also, returns shall be filed electronically while the Commission has approved a 60-day extension, in the first instance for public companies and capital market operators to file their 2019 annual reports and Q1, 2020 reports. By this advisory, public companies are to take appropriate precautionary measures as recommended by the Federal and State Governments as well as the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to ensure the safety of shareholders and participants at Annual General Meetings/Extra-Ordinary General Meetings and other meetings which may be held during the prevalence of the pandemic.