Society Gists

Despite efforts by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to reduce the value of unclaimed dividends in the Nigerian capital market, the amount keeps swelling every year.

A report by Daily Trust said in the first nine months of 2022, the value of unclaimed dividends in four of the five tier-one banks in the country increased by N5.6 billion.

Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa, GTCO, Access Holdings, and FBN Holdings, collectively coined as ZUGAF by Business Post, are the big banks in Nigeria, accounting for about 70 per cent of the market share of the nation’s banking industry.

In the report, it was disclosed that the unclaimed dividends in the big lenders, excluding GTBank, jumped to N92.7 billion from N87 billion.

According to the platform, the unclaimed dividends in GTCO were not captured by the company did not give details of them in the third quarter earnings released in late 2022.

The figures of unclaimed dividends in Zenith Bank remained unchanged at N28.6 billion, but the uncollected cash rewards to shareholders in UBA jumped to N12.6 billion from N11.4 billion, with Access Bank growing to N36.8 billion from N34.9 billion, and First Bank rising to N14.6 billion from N11.9 billion.

Recall that as part of its determination to reduce the fallow investors’ funds, which the federal government moved to take from for running the country, SEC introduced an electronic-dividend registration, which allows companies to pay the cash reward directly into the bank accounts of shareholders.

It also mandated listed firms to promote the use of the e-dividend platform at their annual general meetings (AGMs) and others.

According to SEC, the apex regulatory agency in the country’s capital market, the total amount of unclaimed dividends as of December 31, 2021, stood at N180 billion.

Last month, the Director-General of SEC, Mr Lamido Yuguda, said the commission would rebuild the e-Dividend Management Mandate System (e-DMMS) platform to increase the number of mandated investors on the system.

“The reason why the number may not be reducing as expected is that many investors have not mandated their accounts. Dividends are now distributed electronically, so dividends go directly into the investor’s account, and if everybody mandates their accounts, there would be few unclaimed dividends in the system.

“This process is still open and can be done with the registrars, forms can be obtained from the banks, too, and it’s a very simple process. We also have on our website a tool that assists investors in determining any unclaimed dividends that they have. And I would encourage everyone to take advantage of these tools or to speak to the complaints section of the SEC directly, and we would guide that person appropriately,” he stated.