SEC, NITDA Plan Standardised Data for Capital Market Transactions

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) have commenced move to develop a standardised form that would aid investors to get access to capital market data and information to facilitate their investment decisions in the country.

Mary Uduk, acting director general, at the sideline during a press briefing at the end of the Second Quarter Capital Market Committee Meeting (CMC) in Lagos weekend, said: ” The CMC’s Identity Management Committee has given updates of its meeting with National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) on the implications of the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation on capital market operations. There are plans, the committee announced, “to develop a standardized data form, which seeks to consolidate registration and access to processes in the capital market by investors.”

She further announced that considerable progress has been made in the implementation of its consolidation of multiple shareholder accounts and electronic Dividend Mandate Management System (e-DMMS) as so far about 3.4billion shares have been consolidated.

According to her: ”Both measures were introduced as part of checking the growth and possibly eliminating the unclaimed dividend menace in the nation’s capital market.

“The commission was also mandated by CMC to urge the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to include e-DMMS charges in its Guideline for Bank Charges.”

This, she explained, is because “the CBN has published charges for the banks; this means that any transactions carried out by any bank, there is an established charge.

“The e-dividend charge is not part of the charges from the CBN and so because of that investors are having issues with banks where for instance, they are charged for some transactions that are not listed as bank charges which they do not know.

“They complained to us and so we decided that we will engage CBN to actually make this part of their charges and so any e-dividend carried out will be charged by the CBN.