SEC mandates public companies to publish financial statements online by January 2025

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a directive requiring all publicly-listed companies to publish their financial statements on their websites effective from January 2025.

The Commission, while issuing the directive in a Circular on Thursday, warned that failure to comply with this directive would attract sanctions.

According to the SEC, “The Securities and Exchange Commission (“the Commission”) has observed that public companies file their periodic returns with the Commission and relevant securities exchanges, without simultaneously publishing the same on their websites. This omission is a contravention of Rules 39 and 41 of the Commission’s Rules and Regulations”.

While noting that publicly-listed companies routinely file periodic returns with the commission and relevant securities exchanges, the Commission stated that many always failed to make the financial statements accessible to the investing public on their websites, thereby contravening Rules 39 and 41 of the Commission’s Rules and Regulations.

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It clarified that the “rationale for the publication of periodic returns on their websites is to provide seamless access by the public to such information, which would serve as a guide to making sound investment decisions.”

The commission stressed the importance of timely disclosures as a critical aspect of shareholder engagement and investor confidence in the Nigerian equities market and outlined strict enforcement measures for companies that failed to comply with the directive.

“Public companies are hereby reminded that the rationale for the publication of periodic returns on their websites is to provide seamless access by the public to such information, which would serve as a guide to making sound investment decisions. It is also important to reiterate in this regard that timely disclosures remain a key component of Shareholders’ engagement.

“In line with the foregoing, effective from January 2025, any public company that fails to comply with the requirement of the referenced Rules in respect of the filing of its periodic returns with the Commission, relevant securities exchanges and the simultaneous placement of same on the its website would be penalised as appropriate” the Commission added.

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