Steps have been taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allow the inclusion of e-Dividend Mandate Management System fee into the guideline of bank charges.
Mary Uduk, the acting Director-General, SEC hinted that the move was still in the works after a meeting with the Capital Market Committee (CMC).
Uduk explained that this new move would facilitate the goal of reducing multiple accounts and unclaimed dividends.
In her statement, she disclosed that over 2.7 million accounts had already been mandated for e-Dividend while over 3.4 billion share units had been properly regularized.
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Further Details: Explaining why the regulator is introducing an e-dividend fee to regulate electronic dividends, she said the major reason was to combat identity theft in the capital market. She also promised to widen the knowledge gap in the market via the education curriculum.
“SEC is taking these steps to combat the issue of identity theft in the market.
“Other key initiatives embarked on include our partnership with the University of Lagos to promote capital market education and attract experts to the industry. We are also taking capital market education to primary and secondary schools so that we can capture these young ones.”
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A Nairametrics report revealed SEC’s determination to ensure that the investors in the Nigerian capital market were adequately protected in all transactions. It also contained a promise restated by Uduk to the investors that they would not be shortchanged in any transactions in the market through several initiatives in place to boost investors’ confidence like the e-dividend mandate system.
The bottom line: This new move by SEC to begin to allow the inclusion of e-Dividend Mandate Management System fee in the guideline of bank charges could help shareholders claim their dividends.
