By Emmanuel Elebeke

The Nigerian Security Exchange Commission, says it embarked on e-Dividend sensitization campaign to across the country in order to sanitize the wrought in the system.

The Head of Corporate Communications in SEC, Naif Abdussalam, disclosed this on Tuesday during a road show and sensitization campaign organised by the Commission in Abuja.

He said that the campaign became necessary in view of the need to further enlighten Nigerian investors on the recently launched e-Dividend Platform by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The four day enlightenment programme, which commenced on Monday with a Road Show, will continue till Wednesday January 13, and culminate in a Town Hall Meeting on Thursday January 14, 2015.

According to the Head Corporate Communications, Investors into the Nigerian Capital Market are entitled to their investments when they invest money hence the need for the e-dividend portal and the enlightenment campaign.

“We discovered that when dividends are declared by the companies where they invest, they are sent by post which takes time and sometimes they do not even come at all. Because
investors change addresses, some of the dividend warrants do not even get to them.

‘‘Having looked at it as at 30th September 2015, the Commission realized that unclaimed dividends amounted to about N90billion. SEC determined we will address it once and for all and that is why the Commission launched the electronic dividend portal,’’ he added.

For him, the objective of the campaign was to get the message down to the grassroots to interface with the investors, encourage them to go and register for their e-dividend.

He explained that there is a window of 90 days for all investors to register into the new platform, starting from December 14, 2015 so that they can register freely.

After the free 90 days service window, he said that N100 fee will be charged by banks and accredited registers.