SEC expresses worry over high level of unclaimed dividends

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has expressed worry over the high level of unclaimed dividends in the market.

The Director-General of SEC, Mr Lamido Yuguda, said this at the Post Capital Market Committee (CMC) webinar press briefing on Thursday.

Yuguda said that although dividends were currently distributed electronically, there were so many unclaimed ones.

The DG attributed unclaimed dividends to multiple subscriptions whereby some investors used various means to subscribe for more than permitted number of shares during public offers.

He said that the number of unclaimed dividends would reduce drastically if everyone mandated their accounts.

According to him, SEC has invested a lot of resources, embarked on a number of investor education to ensure that people mandate their account.

“This process is still open, you can do that with the registrar, from commercial banks.

“We also have on our website, a tool which helps you to determine any unclaimed dividend that you may have and I will encourage everyone to take advantage of these tools,” he said.

Yuguda said that dividends that had not been claimed over a certain period were being transferred into the trust fund.

According to him, if anyone comes forward at any given time to claim their unclaimed dividend, this fund will be able to repay those dividends without any problems.

The D-G said that any investment scheme not registered with the Commission was not a bonafide capital market operator.

He urged investors to always check with SEC to know the licensed operators before investing.

“SEC can register a capital market operator and that operator in the cause of his business begins to show signs of distress, the SEC has adequate mechanism to deal with this through our monitoring and enforcement arm,” he said.

The reports that the CMC is a platform for interface amongst capital market stakeholders to discuss issues germane to the development and orderly conduct of the market.