Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has disclosed plans to avail capital market participants, unique identifiers with a view to curbing cases of fraud, as well as the quantity of unclaimed dividends.
This was revealed in a statement by the Commission on Sunday through the Director-General, Lamido Yuguda, who said the measures to be taken would ensure that all participants “within the capital market had a unique identifier that would be given to them so that all capital market transactions would be secured and done on a Straight Through Processing basis, leaving very little human intervention in the processing of data.”
He said stakeholders were intentionally involved in the identity management project to address issues of participants identities in order to limit cases of dividends that are often not demanded for.
“The bureau and the commission can collaborate to ensure that institutions under my supervision should comply with NDPR as we have a lot of leverage over the institutions that work in the capital market so, we can put more emphasis on compliance in our interaction,” he stated.
National Commissioner Data Protection Bureau, Dr Vincent Olatunji, while reacting to SEC, stated that the Bureau was willing to work hand in hand with the commission to achieve desired results.
He added that it was paramount to prioritise and safeguard personal data, given that the internet had made the world a global village.
“The whole world is a global village, and we are constantly interacting over various issues. The sector had the highest contribution to our GDP last year and that speaks volumes. Over 104 million Nigerians go on the internet daily and now we are looking at digitising everything.
“We are committed to ensuring the protection of the data of Nigerians and to ensure we have globally competitive businesses as most countries will not want to go into business with you if you do not have your data protection and a supervising authority in place,” he said.
Dr. Olatunji also commended SEC for their impressive data policy, adding that the collaboration would help ensure the protection and processing of personal data within adequate regulations in the country and internationally.