As part of concerted efforts to reduce the level of unclaimed dividends by investors in the capital market, which stood at N190 billion in August 2023, and make it more attractive to new investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has intensified strategies to curtail the situation.
To this end, SEC, the apex regulator saddled with the dual responsibilities of regulating and developing the Nigerian capital market, held a three-day investors’ clinic in Yobe State to address complaints from investors in the region.
Mr Danladi Mohammed, Head of the SEC Zonal Office, Kano, said the investor clinic was jointly organised by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Gombe State Investment & Property Development Company to proffer solutions to investors with unclaimed dividends and related matters.
Mr Mohammed said the three-day exercise aimed at creating awareness and enlightenment on e-dividend, dematerialization of share certificates, and a direct cash settlement payment system, among other initiatives, and handling inquiries and complaints from shareholders for the people of Yobe State and its environs.
According to him, the initiative is one of a series of programmes and strategies towards reducing the level of unclaimed dividends, which stood at N190 billion in August 2023, by creating awareness, particularly in the regions, to make the investing public come forward to take what rightfully belongs to them. This is one of the key objectives of the Capital Market Development Master Plan 2015–2025.
It will be recalled that the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Lamido Yuguda while briefing the members of the House Committee on Capital Markets and Institutions on the overview of the capital market and its importance to the Nigerian economy, intimated that the Commission had made several efforts in the past and has a lot of strategies and measures in place to tackle the rise in unclaimed dividends.
According to the Director General, the core mandate of the Commission is to regulate and develop the capital market of Nigeria to be on par with its counterparts in other jurisdictions in all ramifications, and the Commission is not resting on its oars to achieve and sustain that mission.
The Commission will embark on a series of investor clinics in 2024 in all the regions of the federation to provide platforms for investors to reap the benefits of investing in the capital market.
At the end of the three-day event, the Commission was able to address many complaints by investors who attended the clinic, which included requests for guidance on e-dividend adoption, change/reconciliation of names, scheme consideration pay-off, verification of share certificates, transmission of shares, payment of outstanding dividends, and many other issues.
Capital market experts have attributed the rise in unclaimed dividends to either a change in residential address by investors and failure to update records with the registrars or investment companies or not keeping track of personal investments or investments owned by deceased relatives.
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