Reps express concern over  N200bn unclaimed dividends

Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives, on Wednesday,  said that at the end 2020, there would be about N200billion unclaimed dividend in the country.
The chairman, House Committee on Capital Market, Babangida Ibrahim,  who stated this at an investigative hearing on “The Need to Investigate the Rising Value of Unclaimed Dividends, Unremitted Witholding Tax on Dividends and their Attendant Effects on Nation’s Economy,”  said the development was worrisome.
Ibrahim,  while stating that the development should be a source of worry to stakeholders,  explained that the value of unclaimed dividends rose  from  N2.09 billion in 1999 to N158.44 billion at the end of 1999.
He noted that the rising unclaimed dividend is a huge challenge, as it has adverse implication on the economic development of the country,  especially as it affects investors confidence in the capital market.
According to him,  “We are aware of measures that have been taken by the capital market regulators in the past to address the problem but we can all see that the problem remains and in fact the situation is worsening by the day.
“Some of the measures include e-dividend, dematerialization of share certificates, publication of names of owners of unclaimed dividends, etc. All these measures are very commendable especially the fact that they are primarily aimed at ensuring that the shareholders who are owners of the dividends get the benefits of their investment.
“It is important to underscore this point. Dividends are distributions of earnings to shareholders. Dividends whether cash dividends or share dividends also known as bonus shares, belong to the shareholders and not to the company who distributed them or neither to the government. Therefore, every effort must be made to ensure that the shareholders gets their dividends from their hard-earned investment.
“Nevertheless, we must also be interested in knowing what happens to the dividends money when they remain unclaimed. You may recall that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had attempted to address this issue in 2006 when it sponsored a bill to establish the Unclaimed Dividends Trust Fund (UDTF). The National Assembly however did not pass the bill following opposition from body of shareholders”..
Speaking at the investigative hearing,  the Director General of Stock Exchange Commission(SEC), Lamido Yuguda,  said about N29 billion of the unclaimed dividends have been claimed by investors through the introduction of regularisation of multiple accounts.