The Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Lamido Yuguda, has disclosed that unclaimed dividends have increased to N180 billion as of December 2021.
This, according to him, represents 5 per cent of the total amount of dividends announced in the entire capital market.
He made this known at an interactive session with the press in Lagos.
Yuguda said the commission is working to ensure it reduces the level of unclaimed dividends to zero per cent in the Nigeria financial market.
“Although, five per cent is still not the ideal number, it should be zero per cent. Every person, who has come to the capital market and invested money, should be able to get his dividends as and when due,” he said.
The director general said SEC is collaborating with other industry stakeholders, including the Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS), to solve the issue of unclaimed dividends especially to make sure that every market appraisal makes it easy for the clients to fill their mandate form so that investors continue to get their dividends.
He also said that the Federal Government intervened last year by enacting a Finance Act on Unclaimed Dividends Fund.
Yuguda said, “The government is looking at unclaimed monies both in the capital market and the banking system and established a fund that will actually access through dividends that have been unclaimed for a certain number of years that meet certain basic definitions.”
“It is not that the government has taken over the money, but when the claimants eventually surface, there is a system for recovering.
“Every person who has come to the capital market and invested money should be able to get his dividends as and when due,” he added.
He noted that SEC would continue working to ensure it gets to zero per cent level, saying that “there is a need for strong investor education to achieve success.
