SEC NIGERIA EXTENDS E-DIVIDEND GRACE PERIOD

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria (SEC Nigeria) has extended the deadline it earlier gave for e-dividend account registration from the end of this month by six months to December 31, this year.

According to an official notice dated yesterday June 29, 2017 and posted on its website not too long ago, the issue of conventional dividend warrants to shareholders will no longer stop to be replaced by electronic payment from this month but from end of the year.

Also, SEC Nigeria will continue to underwrite the cost of opening and registering e-dividend accounts on the payment platform in a bid to continue to encourage investors to embrace the new payment system for dividends due to them.

So far, says SEC, about 2.2m investors have mandated their accounts on the platform to receive their dividends in future through electronic payment as against through dividend warrants payable into individual accounts. With e-dividend, payment is expected to be automatic and within a day of the formal declaration or approval of such a dividend at the annual general meeting.

It will also make it easier to clear backlog of unclaimed dividends mounted over the years. This is because, for those investors with e-dividend accounts and verified accumulated dividends, such will be paid fully into their accounts but the unclaimed ones will eventually be forfeited to the National Capital Market Development Fund,

Much the same way, SEC Nigeria is proposing that future dividends not claimed six months after declaration or approval by the shareholders at AGM shall be forfeited too to the Fund.

So, adds SEC Nigeria " All investors in the Nigerian capital market are therefore advised to take advantage of the extended grace period to approach their bankers or registrars before the deadline".

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