The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday ordered all registrars of public companies to return all unclaimed dividends, which have been in their custody for fifteen (15) months and above, to the paying companies.
In a circular to all capital market registrars released yesterday, SEC mandated them to file evidence of remittance with the Commission not later than June 30, 2015.
The capital market regulator also warned that failure to comply with the directive shall attract appropriate sanctions without further recourse.
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.
Unofficial figures from SEC show that the value of unclaimed dividends by investors in the Nigerian capital market at the end of last year was N70 billion.
Experts have blamed the rising amount of unclaimed dividends on the challenges facing the postal system in the country, 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.
Another contributing factor is a 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.
According to experts, the amount would reduce largely if these challenges were addressed.
In a similar development, SEC also reminded all capital market operators who are yet to comply with the new minimum capital requirement to do so before the deadline of September 30, 2015.
In another circular to all capital market operators, the Commission stressed that it is committed to this deadline and would not grant any further extension.
