The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has faulted the activities of some Capital Market Operators (CMOs) which frustrates the e-dividend mandate process, leading to a rise in unclaimed dividends in the capital market.
This is as the unclaimed dividends in the capital market were estimated to have risen to over N200 billion.
According to a report from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), this disclosure was made by the Director-General of SEC, Lamido Yuguda, while speaking at the 2021 first post-Capital Market Committee (CMC) virtual news conference.
READ: Why SEC should support democratization of sale of foreign securities
What the Director-General of SEC is saying
Yuguda, in his statement, said that the commission was aware that some CMOs were frustrating the e-dividend mandate process.
He said, “We implore all stakeholders to comply with all directives of the Commission in this regard, as defaulters would be sanctioned appropriately. We have observed that the growth in the number of mandated accounts has been on the decline for some time.
The capital market community has directed its e-Dividend Committee to engage with the Committee of Heads of Banking Operations to encourage better cooperation from banks as we tackle the challenges of unclaimed dividends.’’
READ: Shareholders move against FG’s establishment of unclaimed dividend trust fund
The SEC boss reminded all CMOs that the commission’s directive on the update of investors’ Know Your Customer information was still in effect noting that the level of compliance had been low in spite of several engagements by the commission.
Yuguda revealed that 4.01 million accounts still have incomplete KYC information as of April 8 despite the government’s efforts.
He said, “Despite several engagements, we realised that as of April 8, there were still 4,012,311 accounts with incomplete KYC information. This exercise is critical to deepening the participation of retail investors and we direct all CMOs to accord it the highest level of priority.’’
READ: SEC adjusts operations, introduces e-filing, other measures
In case you missed it
- SEC had earlier urged all Capital Market Operators (CMOs) to update their investors’ Know Your Customer information due to the low level of compliance.
- The CMOs were also warned by SEC to stop providing any form of support to unregistered entities operating unlawfully in the country within the capital market as that would not be condoned.
Th e-dividend mandate should be centralised in a portal managed by CSCS or any suitable organisation, so that all shareholders fill their mandate to this portal, and all CMO access this portal to get the shareholders mandate. The current practice in which shareholders fill the e- dividend mandate with each registrar makes it an unending process, as any shareholder who buys into a new stock, has to fill an e- dividend mandate for that CMO assuming no previous stock in the CMO portfolio. With this, SEC could then know those who have mandated their account for e-dividend, but the default is from the CMO.