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SEC may sanction defaulting banks over E-dividends

By on February 7, 2016

The Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC has said that it may sanction banks who had failed to comply with the commission’s directive on e-dividends registration charges meant to be free from December 14th, 2015 till March 14th, 2016 and thereafter, N100 charges.

The commission also said that it was considering to extend the 90 days free period billed to expire on March 4 as a result of some irregularities noticed in the process and the low turn-out of shareholders considered to have resulted from low publicity.
Barely two months after SEC had directed shareholders and investors to visit their registrars and banks to complete their e-dividend mandate form, a process which seeks to eradicate the difficulty encountered by retail investors in claiming their dividends through their savings accounts. .Investigation shows that not all banks had complied on the fee.
It was discovered that despite the directives, some banks still charge the few investors turning up for the exercise   far above N100 which ordinarily should still be free.

For instance, Ecobank and First Bank charge customers N3, 150 and N1, 050 respectively.
Efforts to clarify from them why they are imposing such charges even when the service is still meant to be free proved abortive as they failed to respond to series of messages to them.
Meanwhile, the Commission, through its corporate communications manager, Naif Abdusalam said the it was on top of the issue and would ensure that defaulting banks did not go unpunished.
The commission has also revealed in a statement that it would be embarking on another round of sensitisation campaign specifically in Lagos so as to increase the level of people’s awareness on the process.
“The sensitisation campaign is scheduled for Lagos from February 8 to 11, 2016 beginning with a three day road show to be rounded off with a Town Hall meeting on the last day,” the statement read.

‘Well Disciplined Judicial System will Resuscitate Economy’
Legal icon and Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay has opined that a major way to escape economic mess the country presently was embroiled in was to build a strict and corrupt-free judicial system.
Sagay assured that the committee was working assiduously to sanitise the judicial system especially in the way it handles high profile cases.

At the institute of Directors, IOD members’ evening where he delivered a paper titled: “Integrity and the Administration of Criminal Justice Law in the Fight Against Corruption”, he noted that the sharp drop in Petroleum prices coupled with corruption nearly turned Nigeria into a failed state and to avoid such syndrome, quick and effective measures must be taken, particularly, in the judicial arm of government.
Citing the N1.35 trillion reportedly looted from country’s treasury between year 2006 and 2013, by 55 people, he said it was unfortunate that the number of those tried and convicted so far had not been encouraging.

“Only eight of these high profile cases have been concluded. Out of the eight, one was reversed at the Supreme Court on technical grounds, leaving only seven successful convictions of high profile cases”, Sagay disclosed.
He linked denial and abandonment of high profile cases to corrupt officials such as judges, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, prosecuting and defense counsel, lack of integrity,  political influence, transfer or promotion of judges, frequent adjournment, under-funding of anti-corruption agencies among many others. “All these have to be corrected otherwise, corruption in high places will persist, thus ruin the economy further”, he noted.

He added “it is these circumstances of poor outcomes of corruption prosecution in high profile cases, coupled with alarming increase in the plundering state of funds with impunity that informed the establishment of the Presidential Advisory Committee against corruption”
He revealed that that the committee had so far been productive as seen in the unfolding events of the anti-corruption struggle even though it had not publicised its achievements owing to the sensitive nature of the job.

 

[ThisDay]