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Expand e-Dividend campaign across Nigeria – Shareholders tell SEC

By on January 16, 2016

Shareholders in the country’s capital market have stressed the need for the Securities and Exchange Commission to take its electronic dividend campaign to the six geopolitical zones of the country.

The shareholders, who spoke to our correspondent in separate telephone interviews, said although the commencement of the e-Dividend campaign in Abuja was laudable, SEC should consider other states of the federation where huge number of investors are domicile.

They said owing to the benefits of the initiative to investors and its potential effect on the country’s investment landscape, it was necessary for SEC to carry everybody along notwithstanding their location or ethnicity.

The President, Renaissance Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Mr. Olufemi Timothy, told our correspondent that a large number of shareholders had yet to get the full brief about the scheme.

According to him, the aim of the initiative will materialise if SEC and other stakeholders take the campaign to urban and rural domains leveraging a well structured programme.

He said, “For now, most shareholders are still keeping to themselves as far as this is concerned. The initiative is okay, but it should be well articulated. Registrars should be made to come on board fully.

“A lot of retail shareholders are still not aware. The awareness will make our members to fully comply.”

In the same vein, the President, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Mr. Boniface Okezie, told our correspondent that the initiative was a welcome development, but stressed that there was the need for SEC and other stakeholders to make the remittance process seamless.

He said there was the need for shareholders’ accounts to be credited on time as some experiences had shown a delay in remittance.

He said, “The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System and registrars should be made to go the extra mile. The remittance should be done in 24 hours, but people still do not get their transfers in days after dividends are declared.

“SEC needs to come down to Lagos, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Aba, Kano and other strategic cities in the country. Major investors are outside Abuja. The initiative is good and we will all embrace and support it.”

SEC had, in September last year, directed the registrars to immediately commence the use of the e-Dividend Mandate Management System (e-DMMS) Portal recently introduced by the commission to curb the growth of unpaid dividend in the capital market.

The commission on its website advised the registrars to exercise caution while validating names generated by the system to avoid dissimilarity with the physical forms.

The commission stated that directives would soon be issued to banks to discontinue the verification of paper mandates presented to bank branches by investors.

It further explained that “all registrars’ offices/ accredited outlets shall be points of upload of completed e-Dividend Mandate forms by investors who may alternatively approach their banker to process their completed e-Dividend Mandate Form(s).”

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