CFA Society Nigeria continues to promote the CFA Institute investment industry codes and standards in the Nigerian and African investment management space by advocating for a financial services industry where client interests come first.

The local society recently held a Pan-African Workshop on adoption of the CFA Institute Asset Managers Code (AMC) which strengthened its partnership with the Fund Managers Association of Nigeria (FMAN) and raised the profile of the code in Nigeria.

To further drive promotion of the AMC and GIPS standards among investment management firms, the CFA Society Nigeria Advocacy Committee created a Trustworthy Industry Subgroup. In 2021, this subgroup reached out to 76 Nigerian asset management firms to introduce the AMC, share the benefits of adoption, allay any concerns about cost of adoption and field questions from the firms. The firms that responded to this initiative were sent follow up correspondence with the AMC compliance toolkit, comprising mapping tools, guidelines, and sample policies to get them started.

In a bid to reach more firms, the local society decided to host a virtual "African Regional Asset Managers Code Workshop for Regulators and Operators" in November 2021, with the assistance of the CFA Institute EMEA office. CFA Society Nigeria partnered with the CFA Society^® community in the region—namely CFA Society East Africa, CFA Society Ghana and CFA Society Mauritius—to host two separate AMC-focused workshops; one for regulators and one for operators. 

At the workshop for regulators, the Nigerian regulators in attendance were the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX), Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), National Pension Commission (PenCom), National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC). Attendees from the other African countries also contributed to the event, including representatives from the Nairobi Stock Exchange. The closed session for regulators recorded 149 attendees.

The workshop for operators was hosted in partnership with FMAN and the organization invited their members—asset management firms—to the event. The CFA Society network worked together with the support of Iain McAra, Director, Global Industry Standards, EMEA to develop an event objective, agenda, invitation letter/email templates, social media creatives and set up a registration page on the Zoom account provided by CFA Institute. The agenda included a session for each of the African societies to share their unique AMC journey and status in their countries. This session for operators recorded 206 attendees. You can watch a recording of the session here.

According to Sade Odunaiya, CFA, the founding President of CFA Society Nigeria and current Chair of the Advocacy Committee, “We have given ourselves a 365 day challenge to increase the number of AMC compliant firms in the African region, and Nigeria in particular, to 10. CFA Society Nigeria working with FMAN and CFA Institute – represented by Iain McAra – will make this a reality. The push is beginning to yield positive results as we now have four compliant firms, compared to two when we started.’’

Using Nigeria as a pilot for this Pan-African initiative, CFA Society Nigeria partnered with FMAN to host an informational session for Nigerian firms in March 2022 on the theme ‘Fund Management and Healthy Ethical Practice: A Focus on The Asset Manager Code’. A recording of the event is available here (Access Passcode: @j0jq+LH) . The local society is also working with Iain McAra and FMAN to develop an AMC mapping tool for the local market, using the Nigerian Investment and Securities Act (ISA). The result of this initiative will form the core content of a FMAN knowledge series to be delivered to firms and asset managers via newsletters.

The aim of increasing the number of firms that can claim compliance with the AMC has been strongly embraced by FMAN, whose president increased the number of firms being targeted. It is the hope of CFA Society Nigeria that when this initiative successfully translates to more firms claiming adoption in Nigeria, this same playbook may be used across the continent to improve the stature of African investment and asset management firms. This would be impactful and contribute in no small measure to bolstering market integrity, increasing investor trust in the markets and managers, and making the firms more competitive on a global scale.