The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it has paid N29.3 billion out of N90 billion owned to shareholders as unclaimed dividend through the e-dividend platform.
This, among others formed the major fallout of the Capital Market Committee (CMC) meeting held in Lagos.

Briefing the press on the developments in the market, the Director General, SEC Mounir Gwarzo said the payment, which was made between November last year and October, 2016 was made possible following the free e- dividend registration embarked upon by the commission.
“When we started the e- dividend, apart from so many benefits of the e-dividend, its one major benefit is that if you key into the e-dividend mandate form and you have unclaimed dividend that you have not been able to get, you will get them. I am happy to report that from November last year to October this year, N29.2 billion out of the N90 billion unclaimed dividend have been paid out. This is a major game changer, in this country we had never had any kind of initiative that have reduced unclaimed like we had today” he acclaimed.

He noted that with the e-dividend, apart from an investor getting his dividend any time it is paid, it made possible them to get in arrears up to five years. “This is the good thing about the e-dividend, those who think they will no longer get their dividend now get it with ease”
He commended the registrars, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) among others for their effort in making the payment a huge success.
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Gwarzo therefore urged shareholders to key into the opportunities offered by e- dividend free registration to claim all outstanding dividend adding that given the huge success recorded through the e-dividend free registration, the commission was likely to extend the registration deadline.

He assured that e-dividend has starting assisting in restoring retail investors confident in the market. “This is why we will continue to say that the e-divided mandate will continue to go on, because it is in the interest of the people, it is in the interest of the retail investors, that is why SEC, since we started our master plan, our focus is on retail investors.