The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said that about N42 billion out of about N117 billion unclaimed dividends has been paid out to investors.
This, the Commission, attributed to aggressive campaign for elimination of unclaimed dividends in the Nigerian capital market.
The Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Munir Gwarzo disclosed this Tuesday at a public hearing on the need to determine the status of Unclaimed N90bllion Dividends in Securities for Nigerian investors.
Gwarzo said that efforts by the Commission to address the rising incidence of unclaimed dividends in the Nigerian capital market is already achieving result with the e-dividend registration system.
Consequently, unclaimed dividend has dropped from N117bn to N75billion.
“As of today, based on the reports we received from the registrars, almost N42billion unclaimed dividends have so far been paid, out of a total of N117billion unclaimed dividends as of 30th of December, 2016, which means our message of unclaimed dividend is yielding positive results”, he told the Joint Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Capital Market.
Findings by BusinessDay showed that unclaimed dividends rose from about N2 billion in 1999, to N8 billion in 2008, N41billion in 2011, N60 billion in 2013 N80 billion in 2014, N90billion in 2015 and N117billion in 2016.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Capital Market, Isiaka Adeleke, requested for the list of beneficiaries. However, the DG SEC said this would be transmitted to the panel as soon as possible.