Lagos: Central Securities Clearing System Plc (CSCS), Nigeria's capital market infrastructure, has launched its Custodian Portal, a user-centric digital solution designed to optimise custodian operations through intuitive, secure, and efficient features. Haruna Jalo-Waziri, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CSCS, made this known in a statement on Monday.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, CSCS is a Public Limited Company with a diversified shareholder base, serving as the Central Securities Depository for the Nigerian Capital Market. It functions as the central depository for various financial instruments, including equities, commercial papers, corporate bonds, sub-national bonds, certain sovereign bonds like the FGN Sukuk and the FGN Savings Bond, equity-traded funds, real estate investment trusts, mutual funds, and commodities.
Jalo-Waziri stated that the custodian portal offers a streamlined experience for market participants, equipped with tools that facilitate comprehensive portfolio and trade management, document tracking, share transfer operations, client symbol search, and real-time access to vital data. The portal, designed to operate through a flexible subscription-based model, allows users to manage their records effortlessly and securely through convenient payment channels such as GTPay and Paystack.
He emphasized that digital transformation remains at the core of their strategy to enhance the efficiency, transparency, and accessibility of Nigeria's capital market services. 'The custodian portal is a significant leap in that direction, offering custodians a centralised platform to manage critical processes in real-time. We are excited about the value this innovation brings to our stakeholders, and we will continue to evolve the platform in line with users' needs and industry trends,' Jalo-Waziri added.
The portal is designed with user experience in mind, featuring tools like portfolio viewing and downloads in PDF or Excel format. It also includes tracking of stock movements across date ranges, inbox messaging and request tracking, as well as robust user management capabilities, including role assignment and status tracking.
Similarly, Tobe Nnadozie, Divisional Head of Business Technology and Digital Innovation at CSCS Plc, mentioned that the portal aligns with CSCS's drive to automate the market. 'In addition to the normal features, the platform is a part of an omnichannel platform for custodians and includes API services. It also connects to the market-wide workflow, which CSCS has built to ensure secured communication and approvals across all major stakeholders in the market. The platform is well secured with best-of-breed cybersecurity solutions and our SOC,' he said.
The Custodian Portal reinforces CSCS's commitment to leveraging technology to streamline back-office functions and support a more agile, data-driven capital market ecosystem. All custodians in the Nigerian capital market have now been successfully on-boarded on the Custodian Portal, marking a significant milestone in CSCS's ongoing drive to enhance collaboration, standardise operational processes, and promote digital adoption across the market.