The value of unclaimed dividends by investors in the Nigerian capital market at the end of last year was N60bn.
The amount represents an increase of 46 per cent or N19bn over the N41bn that was recorded at the end of 2011.
Unclaimed dividends refer to dividends
payable to shareholders but have not been accessed by the beneficiaries
for a period of not less than 12 months.
The Director-General, Securities and
Exchange Commission, Ms. Arunma Oteh, disclosed the actual value of
unclaimed dividends for 2012 to our correspondent on the sidelines of a
media briefing by SEC on the Nigerian capital market in Lagos on
Wednesday.
Our correspondent had last week reported that analysts and market watchers had projected that the value might be up to N50bn.
Oteh blamed the rising amount of
unclaimed dividends on the challenges facing the postal system in the
country, adding that the amount would reduce largely if the challenges
were addressed.
She said another major reason for the
accumulation of unclaimed dividends was ignorance on the part of
shareholders or when they changed their forwarding addresses without
informing the registrars of companies they invested in; thus, making
them to be unable to receive dividend warrants.
Oteh, however, said that SEC was involved in various efforts aimed at reducing the amount to a reasonable level this year.
She said, “We have been made to
understand that the amount of unclaimed dividends for 2012 stands at
about N60bn, and we at the commission are making concerted efforts to
ensure that this amount reduces.
“We have gone into various discussions
with registrars and company directors on how this amount can be reduced,
and we are sure all these efforts will yield positive results in the
next few months.”
Oteh explained that SEC frowned on the
situation where companies declared dividends at the end of the year but
did not give the registrars the necessary cash backing to ensure that
the dividends were disbursed to shareholders, adding that this had also
contributed to the rise in the amount of unclaimed dividends.
“SEC is coming up with a policy to
ensure that companies, which declare dividends, give out such amount
declared to the registrars for onward disbursement to the shareholders;
this will lead to a significant reduction in the amount, going forward,”
she said.
She said when the new Chairman of the
SEC Board, Mr. Suleyman Ndanusa, was the director-general of the
commission, the amount of unclaimed dividends stood at N8bn only, adding
that he had promised to ensure that the current amount was reduced
drastically.
The PUNCH had exclusively
reported last week that the total amount of dividends declared by quoted
companies but not claimed by investors in 2012 might hit N50bn.
A stockbroker, who preferred anonymity,
had told our correspondent that with the way things were going, it was
likely that the amount of unclaimed dividends would be significantly
higher than the previous year’s.
He said a lot of issues concerning
unclaimed dividends were left hanging and had yet to be addressed,
adding that this might lead to further increase in the amount this year.
The stockbroker said, “I think if the
regulators and other concerned stakeholders want to be sincere, they
will admit that the figure for unclaimed dividend would likely rise to
about N50bn.
“This is because there are a lot of
unresolved issues in the area of getting dividend warrants to investors,
especially the retail investors, who have small amounts of dividends.”
PUNCH
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