Collective Investment Funds Now N2.1trn – SEC
The Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Lamido Yuguda, has said the amount of Collective Investment Scheme funds held in custody has hit N2.1tn as of the end of October 2023 from N1.1tn at the beginning of 2020.
Yuguda said this on Tuesday at the opening of the two-day Journalist Academy organised by the Nigerian Capital Market Institute.
The SEC boss, who was represented by the Executive Commissioner (Operations), Dayo Obisan, said that in a bid to manage risk and entrench trust in collective investment schemes, “The Commission mandated that all CIS funds be held in custody. This has helped the growth of these funds from about N1.1 trillion at the beginning of 2020 to about N2.1 trillion at the end of October 2023.
“We continue to encourage investors, especially those on the retail end, to approach the market through these CIS funds, as they provide investors with the opportunity to have their investments managed by knowledgeable investment professionals.”
Yuguda stated that to help solve the perennial problem of unclaimed dividends, which currently stands at N190bn, the Capital Markets Committee, had embarked on the creation of a new e-dividend portal, which is expected to become operational at the end of November.
He said that once operational, the portal would simplify the process of mandating accounts for e-dividends.
“This will improve efficiency and ultimately lead to a significant fall in unpaid dividends. In furtherance of its efforts to ensure that new dividends do not become unclaimed, the Commission is presently supporting work on an identity management system that would ensure that investors and market participants are properly identified so as to forestall the problems that led to the accumulation of unclaimed dividends,” he said.
Meanwhile the head of the Lagos office, SEC, Hafsat Rufai, during her presentation said that the Commission was working on incorporating Capital Market studies into the scheme of work of students from primary through to secondary schools to boost financial literacy and knowledge of the market.
She said, “The students can still do their normal mathematics of addition and division, but this time around include things like nominal value and paid up capital. You will see capital market terminologies in Mathematics, in English Language, in Civic Education, in Social Studies and so on.
“That’s where we are now. We are tackling it with the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council. And then infusion of the capital market clubs that we have established already in some schools.”
