SEC Considers New Date to Stop Dividend Warrants Issuance

There is an indication that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may suspend its plan to stop issuance of dividend warrants as from June 30. This, THISDAY gathered, was sequel to calls by stakeholders in the capital market that the plan be put hold on hold.

As part of efforts to reduce unclaimed dividends in the market, the SEC, in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) launched Electronic Mandate Management System (E-DMMS) platform in 2015.

The platform facilitates the registration for electronic dividend by shareholders. The commission, thereafter, said from July 1, 2017, dividend warrants would not be issued by Registrars to shareholders, saying investors should registrar for e-dividends.

But few days to the deadline, THISDAY gathered that the capital market apex regulator is considering moving the deadline.

“Following calls by shareholders and other stakeholders, the need to ensure more investors key into the e-dividend and the compassionate disposition of the commission, it is very likely that shareholders will continue to receive dividend warrants after June 30, 2017. SEC is consulting and will announce a new deadline,” a capital market source told THISDAY.

Some shareholders had said that while the e-dividend was a good means of reducing unclaimed dividends in the market, most investors were yet to key into the platform. They therefore said stopping dividend warrants would mean locking out many investors.

For instance, the Chairman of Ibadan Zone Shareholders Association, Mr. Eric Akinduro, said: SEC has done well by creating a platform where investors can check their non-mandate account with registrars and which many of them have embraced.

“However the deadline is what I fault due to the level of illiteracy of both investors and even the banks. SEC needs to do a lot of enlightenment at grass root level for the small investors that are the major owners of this unclaimed dividends to know how to do about it….So SEC