The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), yesterday, said that there was N90 billion unclaimed dividends at the end of September 2015.
The Head, Marketing Development, SEC, Mr Henry Adekunle, made the fact known during a sensitisation road show by the commission on E-Divided Registration.
Adekunle said the essence of the three-day sensitisation walk was to encourage investors to provide necessary information to enable them to claim their dividends electronically.
According to Adekunle, “E-dividend means electronic dividend, which is the profit an investor gets from the company which he has invested his money.
“All we are saying here is that our investors should go and register to collect your dividend electronically in their preferred bank.
“All that we expect from an investor is to go to the bank and fill a form, which will contain certain information. You will be required to give certain information like your passport, account number, whether savings or current and then your BVN.
“Your Central Securities Clearing System number will be required if you are already dematerialised.
“But if you are not, you will go with your share certificate number after which you will be validated using the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System portal where the e-dividend form is actually located.”
He said that after a successful validation, the completed forms would be sent to the registrars of the various companies, who would consolidate all the investors’ dividends and commence payment accordingly.
Adekunle said “the objective of this initiative is to make sure that the N90 billion unclaimed dividend is depleted within the next six months after the completion of this exercise.
“The exercise will be free for about three months and close in March. Six months from that date, we expect that these N90 billion would have fully depleted.”
He said the exercise would continue afterward but investors would be required to pay N100 which was not subject to review.
