E-Dividend Mandate: SEC gives final notice to unregistered investors

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a seemingly final notice on the deadline for registration on the e-dividend system for unregistered investors in the Nigerian Capital Market.

The commission has set a deadline of 30th June, 2017 for final registration for e-dividend. After the deadline all investors will have to pay to register for the new system.

The e-dividend system is to make the respective shareholders in various quoted companies have access to their money without hassles.

The new system simply allows them to have their dividend in their bank accounts when it is paid out.

In a statement on its website, the Commission enjoined the investing public to note the 30thJune, 2017 deadline “which will mark the end of issuance of physical dividend warrant, with a view to mitigating the risks associated with physical dividend warrants and improving investors’ experience.”

Investors are also advised to contact the nearest branch of their Bank or Registrar to register for the collection of their unclaimed dividends and subsequent dividends electronically, as well as for the Direct Cash Settlement of proceeds from secondary market transactions to be credited to their preferred Bank Account.

To clear the remaining backlog, SEC has opened a portal called ‘u-eDiv Search’ for investors to simply search for their names, know the specific registrar covering their holdings and get registered with them and or their bankers.

Newsverge recall that since the start of the e-dividend scheme in 2016, backlog of unclaimed dividends with various registrars amounting to over N90 billion have been reduced to about N29 billion as at the end of last year.