Senate, stakeholders task SEC to redouble efforts on resolving unclaimed dividends

The Senate and stakeholders in the Capital Market have charged the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) to redouble its efforts to mitigate the crisis of Unclaimed Dividends.

The admonition was made on Monday at a One Day public hearing organised by the Senate to find a lasting solution to the intractable crisis.

The session was organized by the Senate Committee on Capital Market led by Senator Osita Izunaso.

The stakeholders which urged sensitization of the public on the activities of SEC also suggested an amendment of the Finance Act.

Apart from giving the DG, SEC, Dr. Emomotimi Agama,  six months to forward to the Senate Committee , strategies on how to reclaim unclaimed dividends in the Debt Management Office, they mandated SEC to deploy modern technology to identify owners of the unclaimed dividends and come up with comprehensive data.

In his opening remarks, President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, declared that the objective of the public hearing was to help share suggestions on way forward to combat the crisis of Unclaimed Dividends,  empower investors, protect their  interest and unleash the full potential of the capital market.

Chairman of the Committee, Senator Izunaso expressed concern over the subsisting distrust in the Capital Market operation.

The lawmaker noted that all hands must be on deck to restore lost confidence in the Capital Market through proper legislation.

He said:  “The most important thing is, what are the major takeaways of this summit? Somebody said here, and I concur with that person completely, that capital market is something that involves trust.

“Once that trust is eroded, people will not want to invest again. And you know since the crash of the capital market since 2018 today, a lot of people still don’t have confidence in the capital market.

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“So it is our responsibility, it is our collective responsibility to make sure that this confidence is built back. Whether you are a stakeholder, whether you are in the parliament, whether you are a shareholder, whoever you are, make sure that this confidence comes back.

“The  declared dividend alone for five years is five trillion. So which means it’s an average of one trillion a year. So you can say that it is N1 trillion annually. So if dividend alone can be 1 trillion, then the stock market is not doing badly. But you can see that if it is promoted further, we’re going to make more money from that exercise.”

Senator Izunaso told the DG SEC to initiate proactive measures and  identify owners of unclaimed dividends through massive enlightenment activities.

“A lot is on your shoulder because you are the main regulator. Now, there is need to strengthen the Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements.

“I’ve said it here. It’s very key. Once you strengthen the KYC requirements, some of these issues would have been taken care of. You should simplify the process of account update. This is for the bank. Let the process be simplified.

“The shareholder’s representative that spoke, was talking about their website where all these things will be there, Once you go to that website, you will see everything.

“I don’t know whether there is such website in existence. If there is, please, make sure that the public knows about it. If there’s none, let there be one. So that all these stories will not come up again.
“They will just go to the website and you see everything there. Now, we need to also address the inadequacies in the financial institutions infrastructure.

“The  DG talked about leveraging on technology. That is key. That is the major key. We as National Assembly have a role to play and we know our roles. Our roles are very clear. There is need to amend the Finance Act.

“You can’t lump up all these things together. There is need to separate it. The CBN will not have a role to play with the matter of accounts, while the SEC and other institutions will have a role for the acclaimed dividends.

“So I think we should amend the Finance Act. And in any case, I don’t just subscribe to the fact that the Minister of Finance should be the chairman of any such institution. He is too busy to chair it. And we don’t even know whether he will properly constitute it.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE