By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE) – Courteville Business Solutions Plc has reported 352 Unclaimed Dividend Warrants of shareholders of the Company ahead of its Seventh (7th) Annual General Meeting (AGM).
This is contained in the Annual Reports & Accounts of 2011 made available to www.investadvocateng.com in Lagos Nigeria.
The Unclaimed Dividend Warrants list is dated Monday, April 02 2012; though the worth of the 352 Warrants was not disclosed.
This report by Courteville was made in compliance with Section 382 (1) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, Cap C20, LFN 2004.
That section of CAMA stated that: “Where dividends are returned to the company unclaimed, the company shall send a list of the names of the persons entitled with the notice of the AGM to the members. After the expiration of three months of the notice mentioned in 382(1), the company may invest the unclaimed dividends in an investment outside the company. No interest shall accrue on the dividend against the company.
As earlier reported, Nigeria’s Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) said Unclaimed Dividends in the Nigerian Capital Market (NCM) has hit N52.2 billion as at December 31, 2011; which is contrary to about N40 billion announced in February 2012.
The House had in April at a plenary session, passed a resolution mandating the House Committee on Capital Markets and Institutions to investigate the high volume of Unclaimed Dividends in Quoted Companies in Nigeria and report back within four (4) weeks.
Nigeria’s SEC had affirmed in a statement that the Unclaimed Dividends of N52.2 billion, out of this figure, N42.5 billion which is 84.7 percent (84.7%) was held by nine (9) out of 23 Registrars who submitted their returns.
Earlier in February 2012, SEC at a Media Parley with Journalists announced that Unclaimed dividend in the Nigerian Capital Market (NCM) has hit about N40 billion as at date.
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.
As at year 2010, the amount of unclaimed dividends was estimated to be over N20 billion.
In a Journal of Financial Management & 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.
