SEC pays N30b unclaimed dividends to investors

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has paid N30 billion backlog of unclaimed dividends to investors in the Nigerian capital market.

Also, as part of efforts to further reduce the unclaimed dividends profile, the commission had notified the investing public that it would continue to underwrite the cost of e-dividend enrolment till June 30, 2017.

The e-dividend payment platform was introduced to address the rising incident of unclaimed dividends in the Nigerian capital market.

SEC spokesman, Naif Abdulsalam said yesterday in Abuja: “To ensure that all investors benefit from the e-dividend programme free of charge, the SEC had committed to pay the cost of enrolment throughout the year 2016 and had resulted in getting about 48 percent of investors to enroll for the e-dividend payments.”

“Arising from this exercise, over N30 billion, which was hitherto unclaimed have so far been credited to respective bank accounts of Investors.’’

He stated that the advantage of the e-dividend is not only to enable investors collect subsequent dividends electronically but it allows all accrued dividends be credited to investors’ bank accounts.