Section 129 Investments and Securities Act

Section 129 of the Investments and Securities Act 2025 is about Securities dealers to give priority to client’s orders. It is under Part X (Conduct of Securities Business) of the Act. It provides as follows:

(1) Subject to subsection (4), a securities dealer shall not whether acting as principal or on behalf of a person associated with him, enter into a transaction of purchase or sale of securities for its own account, if a client of the securities dealer who is not associated with the securities dealer has instructed the securities dealer to purchase or sell, respectively, securities of the same class and the dealer has not complied with such instruction.

(2) A securities dealer who contravenes the provisions of this section shall be liable to a penalty of not less than N500,000.

(3) A securities dealer shall, in addition to the penalty prescribed in subsection (2), be liable to forfeit to its client, the securities acquired or proceeds of securities sold, while the instruction of the client was pending, to the extent of the pending instruction of such client.

(4) The provisions of subsection (1) shall not apply to a transaction entered into by a securities dealer as principal or on behalf of a person associated with him where the —
(a) instruction from the client of the securities dealer requires the purchase or sale of securities on behalf of the client to be effected only on specified conditions at which the securities were to be purchased or sold;

(b) dealer has been unable to purchase or sell the securities by reasons of those conditions; and

(c) transaction is entered into in prescribed circumstances.