Acting Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms Mary Uduk has disclosed that the agency is in collaboration with relevant stakeholders to sensitize investors on the need to regularize their multiple accounts. She opined that the move would enable them to claim their dividends on time.
Uduk made the assertion during an interview in Abuja where she said the volume of unclaimed dividends remained huge and that the commission was doing a lot to bring it down.
In her words, “Only recently, in our determination to reduce the quantum of unclaimed dividends in the capital market and encourage beneficiaries of deceased investors to step up efforts to claim such dividends, the commission exposed an amendment to our rules, which reduced the time, processes and costs of the transmission of shares from a deceased to the beneficiary.
“The timeline for the transmission of the deceased’s shares has been reduced from three weeks to one week.
Going by that, registrars shall ensure that shares of a deceased are transmitted within a week of receiving the request from the administrators or executors.
“This effort will ensure seamless transmission and claim of a deceased’s shares by heirs and administrators.”
Speaking further, the SEC Boss added that it was in the agency's vision that investors get the benefit of their investments that the commission released a circular to shareholders of the defunct Skye Bank Plc to claim all outstanding dividends.
Uduk stressed that sensitization efforts were ongoing with other stakeholders to enlighten members of the public on the need to claim their shares through the regularization of multiple accounts.
