The Securities and Exchange Commission says it is considering retrenching some of its workers to boost its revenue profile, admitting that 80 per cent of SEC’s expenditure is personnel cost, with almost 50 per cent of staff being senior managers.

SEC’s Executive Commissioner, Corporate Services, Ibrahim Boyi, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday at an investigative hearing on revenue monitoring organised by the House Committee on Finance.

He was representing SEC’s Director-General, Lamido Yuguda, at the hearing.

Mr Boyi explained that SEC’s management and board were considering two options to salvage the commission from its financial crunch.

“Unfortunately for SEC, for 2019, 2020, and this year, we are likely to end up with some deficits because of a revenue shortfall,” he stated.

He further pointed out, “There are two approaches; one is to see how to boost or widen the revenue of the commission, while the other is to see how to reduce the running cost of the commission.

“Unfortunately, almost 80 per cent of our cost is personnel cost. So, we need to find a way of chopping off that cost, and I think work is already going on.”

He also admitted that “we are top-heavy,” disclosing that almost 50 per cent of SEC’s staff are senior managers.

“The idea really is to make the commission more sustainable and make sure that our revenue is going forward,” said Mr Boyi.

Mr Boyi noted, however, that SEC had reconciled its accounts with the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation up to 2018, saying those of 2019 and 2020 were ongoing.

Responding, the Deputy Chairman of the committee, Saidu Abdullahi (APC-Niger), said, “Well, we need you to make more money, absolutely. If you want to spend more money, you should make more than what you need to spend.

“A situation where agencies will make more money and spend everything at this age and era is not acceptable to us. So, you need to take that back home.”

The deputy chairman also urged the SEC leadership to promptly conclude reconciliation of its accounts for the 2019 and 2020 fiscal years to enable the committee to take critical decisions.

(NAN)