Senate Considers Bill to Monitor Financial Activities of Stockbrokers,

By Dipo Olowookere

Stockbrokers and persons working in the financial services sector in Nigeria may soon be mandated to declare their assets if moves to amend the Bank Employees Declaration of Assets (BEDA) Act 1986 succeeds.

At the plenary on Tuesday, the Senate considered a bill to tamper with the 35-year old law to make it compulsory for bankers, stockbrokers, pension administrators to declare assets.

Sponsor of the bill, Mr Sani Musa, in his lead debate, observed that with the creation of the Code of Conduct Bureau, which came into effect 13 years after the BEDA Act, the provisions in the latter have been overtaken by the 1999 Constitution as amended.

He recalled that on March 16, 2021, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) announced that all employees of financial institutions (including banks) in Nigeria must declare their assets before June 1, 2021, in line with the provisions of the BEDA Act 1986.

Accordingly, Mr Musa stated that the bill when passed and signed into law, would make it mandatory for financial institutions, pension fund administrators, insurance firms and stockbrokers and their employees to declare their assets.

According to him, it would also provide the required framework to monitor the financial activities of stockbrokers, employees of banks and pension administrators to ensure that their lifestyle reflects their earnings, noting that this would discourage the employees from engaging in corrupt practices.

“This bill seeks to extend the application of the Act to employees of other financial institutions which have emerged as key players in the Nigerian financial sector over the years, i.e. pension funds agencies, insurance firms, stockbrokers,” the lawmaker said.

He explained that the bill also seeks to unburden the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) of the responsibility of keeping records of declared assets by Nigeria Customs and bank workers and transferring same to the regulator of each industry.

The bill after scaling the second reading during the plenary was referred by the Senate President, Mr Ahmad Lawan, to the Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, which was given four weeks to report back to the chamber.