By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigeria’s Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) Tuesday announced that Unclaimed dividend in the    Nigerian Capital Market (NCM) has hit about N40 billion as at date.

Daisy Ekineh, Executive Commissioner, Operations of SEC made this disclosure on behalf of Arunma Oteh, Director General (DG) SEC during a Question and Answer Session at a Quarterly media briefing held in Lagos Nigeria.

“The size of the unclaimed dividend is about N40 billion and SEC is working hard to ensure that this is reduced.

According to her, to achieve this, its through the e-dividend payment system being advocated by the Commission; which will ensure that investors get paid their dividend directly to their Bank Accounts.

“We understand that some of the shareholders are having some problems with the issue of paying directly into their Accounts, because they have Savings Accounts, when we were about starting the e-dividend, we actually spoke with the Banks and it was agreed that dividends would be paid directly into these Savings Accounts” Ekineh said.

She affirmed that the       Banks accepted this proposal when SEC approached them on the issue, but the Commission was surprised that some Shareholders say they don’t get paid by the Banks through their Savings Accounts.

“What the SEC has planned to do is to take it up with the Central Bank of Nigeria; hoping that they would issue a directive to the Banks so that they would accept the payment of e-dividend into the Savings Accounts of shareholders; because its not everybody that has Current Accounts; some people have Savings Accounts” she said.

Ekineh further affirmed that the Commission is working on ensuring that the dividends outstanding is paid to reduce the incident of unclaimed dividend which has hit about N40 billion.

She also said that SEC would continue to educate investors so that they would understand they have to claim their dividends regardless of how small the dividend is, “some people don’t because they felt it is very small, and we have talked with Registrars and some of the Companies in the past and published in the Newspapers that those who have unclaimed dividends should claim them” Ekineh said.

In his reaction to the unclaimed dividend Trust Fund, she said it went before the National Assembly a couple of years ago; but passing the Bill did not work out.

www.investadvocateng.com can report that the issue of Unclaimed Dividend Trust Fund was first proposed in year 2006 under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration and was opposed by stakeholders in the Capital Market, following this development; the National Assembly had to dump the idea.

As at year 2010, the amount of unclaimed dividends was estimated to be over N20 billion.

In a Journal of Financial Management & amp; Analysis, July 2006 by Ifuero Osad Osamwonyi, Osarobo Churchill Imasuen, It was affirmed that the growth of unclaimed dividends in Nigeria has been phenomenal. As at the end of 1999, the figure had risen to about N2.0 billion.

From N2.09 billion as at third quarter (Q3) of 1999, the figure for unclaimed dividend has risen significantly over the years to about N17.9 billion as at December 2008, SEC was quoted by the paper as saying and that this figure was obtained from the companies not from their registrars.

As earlier reported, Nigeria’s SEC in its Fourth Quarter Report disclosed that at December 2010, the unclaimed dividend figure from quoted companies was N33.92 billion (N33, 929,435,751.27).

SEC also affirmed in its Fourth Quarter Report, five companies – mainly Banks – have the highest figures of unclaimed dividend.

In Report, the Commission said that First Bank has N19,869,355,139.34 unclaimed dividend; Access Bank has N6,152,777,434.37; Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) has N3,610,346,725.63; Intercontinental Bank has N3,032,398,629.45, while Fidelity Bank has  N1,264,557,822.48 unclaimed dividend.