The Investment and Securities Tribunal (IST), has settled capital market disputes valued at N1 trillion since its inception in 2003, the Chairman of the tribunal, Mr. Amos Azi, has disclosed.
He told journalists in Abuja, yesterday, that the tribunal has provided comfort and boosted investor confidence in the market as it continued to amicably resolve disagreements arising from transactions in the sub-sector.
He stated: “Since the inception of the Investment and Securities Tribunal (IST) in the year 2003, we have been able to resolve disputes from transactions in the capital market to the tune of almost a trillion Naira and in the last year, we have resolved disputes valued at N17 billion.”
He added, “The courts have made tremendous progress especially in the areas of providing judgements on disputes as it has hardly been overturned at the Appellate Court where dissatisfied parties go to appeal”.
The chairman said that the IST stood out in the nation’s judiciary in its ability to resolve cases within three months, unlike other courts where in most cases, matters remained for many years undetermined, a situation inimical to business operations.
According to him, the IST has revolutionised its processes and procedures, such that through its latest mechanisms aggrieved parties could electronically file suits from any part of the globe and yet receive prompt attention, in the tribunal’s bid to provide a very quick response to matters brought before it.
Earlier, the Director of Planning Research and Statistics, Mr. Emmanuel Chukwuorji, disclosed that the Tribunal has resolved over 300 cases from inception and that the IST has added a lot of value to the development of the Nigerian capital market.
His words, “The IST is a creation of the Capital Markets Committee and what we have done over the years is to improve investor confidence by ensuring that disputes are well vetted before judgements are passed which is why our judgements are hardly overturned at the Appeal court.”