The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says the unclaimed dividends figure in the nation’s capital market currently stands at N190 billion.

Lamido Yuguda, SEC’s director-general, said this at the second post-Capital Market Committee (CMC) media briefing in Abuja on Friday.

He said the figure increased due to issues concerning identity management in the country.

Mr Yuguda also attributed the rising figure to multiple subscriptions by investors during banking consolidation and identity management.

“We have legacy issues that have aggravated unclaimed dividends,” said Mr Yuguda. 

He, however, said the commission was working with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) on upgrading the e-dividend portal.

“We are working very hard to ensure we reduce the number of unclaimed dividends, ” he said. “We reiterate that every person, who has come to the capital market and invested money, should be able to get his dividends as and when due.”

On dollar-denominated bonds listed on NGX, the director-general said it was not a problem as long as it was a corporate one.

He said the road ahead of the market was undeniably challenging but that the capital market would step forward in whatever way to lend its helping hand to the current economic reforms.

The director-general, who said market players were urged to prioritise cyber-security measures to safeguard sensitive financial data and transactions, lamented the trend where companies chose to de-list from the capital market.

Also speaking, the commissioner for operations at SEC, Dayo Obisan, said one of the major issues bedeviling the commission was for beneficiaries to get access to claim their dividends.

“We keep putting our efforts to ensure that investors update their bank details, information and claim their dividends.

“But we still have some of them who fill in the details wrongly,” Mr Obisan said. 

(NAN)