… as SEC pays out N42bn unclaimed dividend to investors
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says about N42 billion out of about N117 billion unclaimed dividends have been paid out to investors.
This, the Commission attributed to aggressive campaign for elimination of unclaimed dividends in the Nigerian capital market.
Director-general, SEC, Munir Gwarzo, disclosed this Tuesday at a public hearing on the need to determine the status of unclaimed N90 bllion dividends in securities for Nigerian investors.
Gwarzo said efforts by the Commission to address the rising incidence of unclaimed dividends in the Nigerian capital market were already achieving result with the e-dividend registration system.
Consequently, unclaimed dividend has dropped from N117 billion to N75 billion.
“As of today, based on the reports we received from the registrars, almost N42billion unclaimed dividends have so far been paid, out of a total of N117billion unclaimed dividends as of 30th of December, 2016, which means our message of unclaimed dividend is yielding positive results,” he told the Joint Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Capital Market.
Findings by BusinessDay showed that unclaimed dividends rose from about N2 billion in 1999 to N8 billion in 2008, N41billion in 2011, N60 billion in 2013, N80 billion in 2014, N90 billion in 2015 and N117 billion in 2016.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Capital Market, Isiaka Adeleke, requested for the list of beneficiaries. However, the DG SEC said this would be transmitted to the panel as soon as possible.
Earlier, declaring the event open, Senate president Bukola Saraki, stated that the issue of unclaimed dividends remains quite critical as it has endangered the progress of the Nigeria Capital Market, “an issue among others that has eroded our Investor’s confidence.”
Represented by Senate majority leader, Ahmad Lawan, he said: “Investments in the area of shares have dropped abysmally and dividends accruing to investors have come to zero thereby discouraging a lot of new investors from buying shares. The attendant economic and social effects of this development can best be imagined.
“It is therefore on this premise that the Senate at its Plenary Session on the 8th Day of November, 2016, considered and deliberated a motion moved by Senator Muhammad Shittu seeking the “Need to Determine the Status of Unclaimed N90 Billion Dividends in Securities for Nigerian Investors and the circumstances to which it was accumulated.
“The Senate also mandated this Committee by way of the Senate Resolution, to ensure proper verification of the alleged unclaimed dividends, make recommendations which seeks to amend the 12 year ban on Unclaimed Dividends as provided for by Section 383 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 1990”.
