The Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) has urged investors to compel their banks to register them on the e-Dividend platform to enable them to benefit from the initiative.
The Director-General of the commission, Mr Mounir Gwarzo, said this in an interview with newsmen on Sunday in Abuja.
Our source reports that the D-G was speaking after some investors complained that their banks refused to register them on the e-Dividend platform.
Gwarzo said the situation with the banks had been like that for about a year now.
He, however, said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), and the Bankers Committee had waded into the matter.
“We as investors too have to put pressure.
“If you go to a bank and they say they are not going to do it, you challenge them and if they refuse to do that, what we are telling people is, they should report that bank and that officer to either the Central Bank or to Committee of Bankers or to SEC and we will take it up because that is the only way we will be able to achieve this.
“That is the only way an investor in the Nigerian Capital Market would benefit from his investments.’’
Gwarzo said that in the past, payment of dividends to investors had stalled due to change of addresses, distance, time and cost of collecting the dividends.
He, however, explained that with the e-Dividend initiative firmly in place, such challenges would be easily overcome and investors would no longer suffer loss of their investments.
“That is why we are very passionate about this initiative.
“We want the market to be electronically driven from the e-dividend side so that once a company declares dividends, the dividends will now be paid into the investors’ accounts.
“And happily enough, SEC’s rules are very clear; once the Annual General Meeting has approved payment of dividends, it is expected that within a period of time such dividends are paid.
“What we have seen in the past is, when we ask why this dividend has not been paid, they give us evidence that they have already sent it to a courier service.
“The courier service will give you evidence that they have sent it to the postal address – all kinds of excuses, but with the electronic platform, nobody will give you any excuse because the moment it is declared, within a particular period of time that dividend ought to be paid into the clients’ accounts.
Gwarzo underscored the importance of developing retail investors.
He said that could be done by addressing some of the concerns of the retail investors.
According to him, the e-Dividend platform is one initiative that will help achieve that objective.