SEC regularises 3.4b share certificates in capital market

Woos states to cheaper funds at nation’s bourse
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said that about 3.4 billion units of shares have been effectively regularised at the Nigerian capital market.Regularisation of share certificates enables investors who bought shares of the same company using different names during public offers to consolidate their multiple subscriptions into a single account.

To stem the rising unclaimed dividend figure in the nation’s capital market, all multiple shares account needed to be regularised to enable payment of the accrued dividends.Acting Executive Commissioner, Corporate Services at SEC, Henry Rowland, while addressing journalists during the second post-Capital Market Committee meeting in Lagos at the weekend, affirmed that over 3.4 billion units of shares have been effectively regularised, with 2.7 million accounts mandated in the market.

“As we all know, the unclaimed dividend issue is a dynamic one. While we were solving the issue, new ones are accruing. We can confirm that about 2.7 million accounts have been mandated. If each mandated account will attract a number of dividends unclaimed, then it is of essence.

“In addition to e-dividend registration approach , the SEC launched an initiative that is called regularisation of multiple subscriptions, whereby people have used different names for one company or share”, he said.Earlier, the Acting Director-General of the SEC, Mary Uduk, urged state governments to access cheaper funds for developmental projects through the capital market.

“SEC has not received any application from any state government. The commission would welcome any state government that wants to raise bond for developmental projects from the market.”It will be good for transparency because it will help their financial obligations. For you to be able to access the capital market, you must have a transparent accounts as well as good governance,” she said.She added that the states must comply with the commission’s rules on fund raising before their applications would be granted.

But the Acting Executive Commissioner (Operations), SEC, Isyaku Tilde, said: “One fundamental issue we look at is the total debt of the state, including the proposed debt and we compare it with their revenue. You know that we have a limit, the total debt including the proposed debt will not be more than 50 per cent of the preceding revenue,” he said.

Commenting on the commission’s yearly reports that have been pending for four years, Uduk said that the outstanding accounts had been signed, assuring that they would be made public by next week.“As we speak, the accounts have all been signed and they will be on our website before the end of next week,” Uduk said.

She noted that the commission also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to curb and combat money laundering, terrorists financing and fraud in the capital market.