SEC ‘quietly’ extends e-dividend free registration exercise

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ‘quietly’ extended the e-dividend “free” registration exercise till March 31, BusinessDay can disclose.
The SEC had not officially notified the investing public on this extension, but insider sources confirmed this development to our reporter. Two days are already gone into the 30-day period.
After our reports revealed causes of challenges shareholders face in the registration process, SEC and the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) discussed how the latter institution could improve on its services particularly relating to frequent network downtime.
BusinessDay had reported that the e-dividend portal provided by NIBSS “hardly opens” and was frustrating investors, but NIBSS refuted it.
Interestingly, NIBSS last week created a new Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to quell the public outcry over its poor services.
Already, to ensure that shareholders do not experience difficulty in the exercise, most banks have started using the new URL.
A Uniform Resource Locator, colloquially termed a web address, is a reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it.
While responding to this development on phone, Lilian Phido, head, corporate communication at NIBSS told BusinessDay the new URL granted to banks was created since a month ago.
“It was all in preparation for the last deadline. What you call downtime by NIBSS platform is not but a local issue from the bank which you visited,” she said.
Meanwhile, a source at one of the Tier-1 banks told BusinessDay that they were directed to use the new URL from March 1.
BusinessDay had exclusively reported that the SEC was considering extension of the e-dividend free registration to encourage more shareholders to key into the policy.
Increasing amount of unclaimed dividend has been one of the major factors discouraging investors from investing in the stock market. From a little over N2 billion in 1999, the figure by the end of 2008 had risen to about N20 billion. And now the SEC estimates that the value of the unclaimed dividends had increased to about N103 billion as at December 2017.
The free registration is to ensure shareholders get their dividends electronically, instead of the hassles they usually passed through to process it manually via the banks, and most time postal services making dividends not to reach the shareholders.
SEC has spent about N315 million for free e-dividend registration for shareholders across the country.
“Our spot check team visited and got across to some bank champions to get feedback on the status of the Portal from their end; feedback reaching us via email as confirmation from Champions from six banks they checked is that they are not experiencing any challenges with the portal.
“To ensure this feedback is bank-wide, we have advised the Bank Champions to put up a feedback mechanism from their bank branches to them; to ensure they receive feedback real time. Also feedback from the visit to some Registrars also was that the Portal is stable,” Phido said in an earlier emailed response to BusinessDay.
A source at the SEC had told BusinessDay that regulator was not impressed with the outcome. In reviewing the progress of the e-Dividend Registration exercise ahead of the February 28, 2018 previous deadline, the SEC noted that there was still a great influx of shareholders desirous of mandating their bank accounts for payment of dividends electronically.
Since the launch of the e-Dividend Mandate Management System (e-DMMS) Portal on July 29, 2015 by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the commencement of the exercise, the Commission has consistently extended deadlines for the Free Registration without anyone telling Nigerians who is responsible for such.
Since the commencement of the electronic dividends (e-dividend) registration exercise, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been carrying the marginal cost of N150 per shareholder.
As at January, only 2.1 million investors have been registered under the e-dividend registration. SEC has been advising all investors in the Nigerian Capital Market to take advantage of the on-going free registration and register by approaching the nearest branch of their bankers or registrars for enrolment before the deadline.