Biometric enrolment: CSCS engages CEOs of stock broking firms

As part of efforts to sensitise all Nigerian capital market participants on the Biometric Enrolment and Verification System and its benefit to the capital market, the Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) plc had an interactive session with chief executive officers (CEOs) of stockbroking firms, at the Nigerian Stock Exchange building, Marina, Lagos.

In his welcome address, Kyari Bukar, managing director of CSCS, said it was necessary to make an official presentation to the CEOs of all stockbroking firms so as to “discuss the numerous benefits the biometric enrolment would bring to the Nigeria capital market and the economy at large, and to have discussion on areas of improvements if need be.”

According to Kyari, this exercise promises to bring transparency into the market, boost investor’s confidence and in return promote growth in the nation’s economy.

As regards wrong data management, Kyari explained that the system had put in place measures at the back end to cater for managing instances where a false identity presented himself first for biometric enrolment before the original account owner. Should such occur, the wrong and original account owners are investigated and the false enrolled data will be deleted from the system.

During the presentation, Anthony Ezugbor, head of product and service development at the CSCS, said the system was an attempt at reducing to the barest minimum the challenges of identity theft in the capital market.

To him, other benefits of the solution include unique identification and verification of investors in the market, access to centralised infrastructure for biometric data, and enhancement of transparency and trust among participants.

Explaining further, Anthony said the development of the solution began in 2013 and had been test-run for 13 months and that the feedback received during this period from stockbrokers and registrars had helped in modifying and optimising the solution.

In a response to questions asked by the participants, Kyari concurred that massive campaign is needed to raise awareness around the solution, and he assured the participants that CSCS would be in the forefront of the campaign. He enjoined the CEOs to avail themselves and their firms of the opportunity to be part of the exercise stressing that this giant step taken by CSCS as part of her contribution to the elimination of identity theft in the market was lauded by the executives of Security and Exchange Commission who promised to be of help when the system goes live.