CSCS Plc’s Divisional Head, Business Services and Client Relations, Mrs Onome Komolafe, stated that technology will play a key role in deepening Nigeria’s capital market during a panel session titled ‘Bank Recapitalisation: Bridging the Gap Between Investors and Issues in the Nigerian Capital Market’ at a workshop for Capital Market Correspondents held recently in Lagos.
She stated, “In terms of technology, CSCS has deployed a lot of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) over the last five years. Let me not bore you with the details of APIs, which are a lot of infrastructure that allows brokers to interact with the market without having to go to CSCS.
“Today, you can do your account opening for your client from the comfort of your office. You don’t have to come to CSCS for most of this because alternative portals have been installed. If you wish to submit documents to CSCS, you do not need to be present. So we’ve released a number of APIs to the industry for self-service alternatives.”
Komolafe stated that the market has been receptive to technological innovations, despite CSCS concerns about shortening settlement time. “This is a market that started at T+5 but today we are T+3, and we are engaging to reduce the settlement period. So first, we’ll talk about much of the reduction in the settlement cycle that has happened.”
“You will see that we can’t do much if we don’t have the right technology and CSCS has deployed technology. The market has accepted most of the technology from account opening from a direct cash settlement, reduction of settlement cycles, cybersecurity, and everything that CSCS has brought to the market has been accepted, and that’s why we see this evident transformation in the market” .
