The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on reported the embarkment of an identity management project with capital market participants to be given unique identifiers to curb issues of fraud in the market.
SEC also said that the unique identifiers will reduce high number of unclaimed dividends as well as noting that the identity management project in the capital market would ensure that market transactions be secured and done on a ‘Straight Through Processing’ basis.
According to a statement from SEC, this was made known by its Director-General, Mr Lamido Yuguda, at a meeting with the management of the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB).
Yuguda said the move was part of efforts by the SEC to manage identities of participants in the capital market.
The SEC boss pointed out that part of the objective of the project is to reduce human intervention in the processing of data.
Yuguda said that the commission was currently engaging stakeholders to harmonise various database of investors and facilitate data accuracy in the market.
He said, “As far as the Commission is concerned, we have an Information Technology (IT) transformation project underway that seeks to strengthen our data protection within the commission and the capital market.” It will be up to speed in terms of modernity, efficiency and protection of the database of the commission and the capital market.
“The National Commissioner of the NDPB, Dr Vincent Olatunji, commended SEC for their robust data policy and expressed the readiness of the Bureau to collaborate with the Commission.”
This initiative by SEC if well implemented will help curb some of the illegal and fraudulent transactions in the capital market as well as identity theft issues. Identity theft refers to a fraudulent practise of using another person’s name and personal information to obtain shares, credit and loans, among others. The resolution of identity management issue would also help tackle the problem of unclaimed dividends.