•May Undertake Forensic Audit
Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission says it is focusing on ways to resolve the problem of multiple share subscriptions which is the major factor preventing the achievement of zero unclaimed dividends in the capital market.
Speaking on the sidelines of a parley with Business Editors in Lagos, Ms. Mary Uduk, acting Director-General of the commission, told Investdata News that unclaimed dividends in the country stood at N153bn at the end of January 2020.
She noted that there are no problems with new dividends being declared by listed companies in recent years since the beginning of electronic-dividend, following which all shareholder accounts have been updated.
Efforts, she assured will now be geared towards resolving the legacy issues, including investors with multiple share subscriptions, including an ongoing partnership with company registrars and stockbroking firms to reach those affected, since such shares were bought through them.
The commission may do a forensic audit to finally lay the problem to rest, according to another official of the commission.
Recall that Uduk had in an interview with Channels Television, last month, said the commission has “engaged the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System to make use of the Bank Verification Number and we have got Central Securities Clearing System and the registrars working towards reducing it and there has been a marked reduction.”
Represented by Okey Umeano, Head, Office of the Chief Economist, SEC, she assured that “there would be no future unclaimed dividends, there would be no addition to the unclaimed dividends profile and we count that as a success.
“We believe that once we solve the identity issues that we have presently, the problem of unclaimed dividends will be a thing of the past. Also, we have continued with our education of the market; we are making more efforts towards awareness on what stakeholders need to know to make the market more attractive, make it better and protect the investors more.
“This year, one of the things we decided to resolve was the unclaimed dividend problems, as well as regularisation of multiple accounts.
“On all counts, we have made a lot of strides. Next year we are picking a few other things like derivatives trading, commodities trading ecosystem and strengthening the CIS segment of the market.”
Uduk stated that the issues around multiple subscriptions were still on, urging affected investors to regularise their accounts so that their shares could become active and they would be able to get the benefits of investing in the market.
Elimination of dividend warrants in the market, she further noted, remains a major game-changer, following which she charged Investors “to register for e-dividend to access the benefits.”