Unclaimed Dividend: 2.7m Investors Sign-up For E-dividend

The Securities and Exchange Commission says a total of 2.7 million investors have been captured under the Electronic Dividend Mandate Management System.

The acting Director-General, SEC, Ms Mary Uduk, while speaking at the press briefing after the second quarter Capital Market Committee Meeting in Lagos, said the commission also recorded a total of 3.4 billion regularised accounts of investors who previously managed multiple accounts.

She described the feat as a considerable progress in the implementation of the consolidation of multiple shareholder accounts and e-DMMS.

Uduk stated that most investors had bought shares in various names during initial public offers and were unable to claim such dividends since the introduction of Bank Verification Number and other systems.

She said these had brought about an increase in the volume of unclaimed dividends, which pushed the commission to put measures in place to tackle it.

In 2018, SEC launched the regularisation of multiple shareholders accounts and the e-Dividend Mandate Management System to tackle unclaimed dividends.

Uduk expressed satisfaction with the regularisation of multiple shareholders accounts, describing investors’ response as very impressive.

She said, “The committee informed the meeting that the Committee of Heads of Banking Operations had agreed to collaborate with the commission to display banners in (their) banking halls all over the country, sensitising the public on the regularisation of multiple subscriptions of shares.

“Similarly, stockbrokers and registrars are requested to make available to the committee on multiple subscription account, on a periodic basis, the number of regularised accounts.”