Overview
The Investments and Securities Act (ISA) established the Investment and Securities Tribunal as a specialised judicial body with exclusive jurisdiction over capital market disputes. That jurisdiction is divided into original and appellate streams. The original jurisdiction is invoked where a question of law arises, where the dispute is between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and capital market stakeholders, or where the dispute concerns the administration, management, and operation of a collective investment scheme.
A recurring issue in practice is whether a dispute falls within the Tribunal's original or appellate jurisdiction. This question often turns on whether the investment vehicle in dispute is a collective investment scheme or a private placement. In Olusola Akinyede v Stanbic IBTC & MTNN, the Tribunal's jurisdiction was challenged on precisely this point, with the parties disagreeing over the nature of the investment.
This article examines the key determinant of when an investment vehicle is a collective investment scheme rather than a private placement, and how that distinction shapes the jurisdictional route a dispute must follow before the Tribunal.
