The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC Nigerians), on Sunday urged those with multiple shareholder subscription accounts begin the process of regularising such, so as to obtain the benefits of their investments in the capital market.
A statement by the commission quoted Ms. Mary Uduk, its Acting Director General, as reassuring during an interview in Abuja at the weekend that such subscribers will not be prosecuted.
According to her “The forbearance window for shareholders with multiple subscriptions has been extended by another year from the December 31, 2018 deadline previously communicated. Consequently, we enjoin those who have not come forward for the regularization of shares purchased with multiple identities, to do so.
The SEC, she continued, is only interested in ensuring investors have the benefits of their investments.
“We just want them to come forward and take back their shares and register them properly with CSCS (Central Securities Clearing System) so that the trading float in the market will increase.”
She also enjoined investors to take advantage of the on-going e-dividend (electronic dividend) registration to reduce the unclaimed dividends profile as well as increase liquidity in the capital market and the economy.
According to her, “the essence of the E-Dividend Mandate Management System is to eradicate or reduce to the barest minimum the incidence of unclaimed dividend. Unclaimed dividend is an undesirable feature of the Nigerian capital market which denies investors/shareholders the gains of participating in the capital market. It denies the economy access to the huge amount of money which should have accrued to shareholders and would have gone into circulation to oil the wheel of the economy.
“It is a consequence of the bottlenecks which are inherent in the erstwhile paper dividend warrant regime such as postal system inefficiency, change in investors’ addresses, poor fidelity and human fallibility in dividend payment processes, amongst others.
She stated that the E–Dividend regime bypasses these limitations by ensuring that dividends which do not exceed 12 years of issue are credited directly to an investors account after declaration by the paying company and within a stipulated payment period through simple interbank transfer.
“The E-Dividend registration exercise started on November 23, 2016. Each successful registration cost N150, however, between that time and March 31, 2018, the Commission underwrote the registration cost for all investors that mandated. It is my pleasure to let us know, that a total of 2.4m accounts had been mandated.
“May I therefore implore you all to key into the E-Dividend registration exercise by visiting the nearest bank branch or registrar. In addition to migrating to the E–Dividend regime yourselves, kindly tell everybody you know to do same in their best interest.