By Musa Baba Adamu
The Senate has said it would tackle all issues of unclaimed dividends in the capital market with the collaboration of stakeholders.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Capital Market, Osita Izunaso, said this at a public hearing on the ‘Unclaimed Dividend Fund’ held in Abuja on Monday.
Mr Izunaso noted that investors had lost confidence in the market and said the Senate would ensure that that confidence was rebuilt.
The senator said, “The capital market is something that involves trust. Once that trust is eroded, people will not want to invest again. And you know that, with the crash of the capital market since 2018 to date, a lot of people still don’t have confidence in the capital market.
“Look at what the registrar said, that the declared dividend alone for five years is five trillion. So this means that it’s an average of one trillion a year. So you can say that it is N1 trillion annually. So if dividend alone can be N1 trillion, then the stock market is not doing badly.”
He also said that Nigeria would make more money if the market was promoted further.
Mr Izunaso further said that the issue of unclaimed dividends persisted due to several factors. These factors, he said, included challenges in identity management within the capital market and multiple subscriptions during the era of paper dividend warrants.
He said that the longstanding issues had compounded the problem of unclaimed dividends.
“However, substantial efforts are underway to address these challenges through the adoption of electronic dividend payments,” added the senator.
Declaring the hearing open, Senate President Godswill Akpabio said unclaimed dividends struck the heart of Nigeria’s financial markets and the economic landscape.
He said it was “a call to reclaim what was rightfully ours and a call to forge a stronger and more prosperous future for Nigeria.”
Mr Akpabio added, “Unclaimed dividends represent not just a financial loss but a loss of trust in our capital market. We cannot afford to let this continue. We must rise to the challenge, confront the complexities and find bold solutions that will restore faith in our financial systems and empower our investors.”
In his submission, the director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Emomotimi Agama, said that the reason for unclaimed dividends in the market included the use of multiple identities and lack of inadequate information.
He said others included buying shares under fictitious names and losing a dividend warrant.
