By citybusinessnews@yahoo.com –
The Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mounir Gwarzo on Monday in Lagos decried low investors enrollment to the e-dividend payment platform in the last three months.
Speaking at the post Capital Market Committee (CMC) meeting in Lagos, Gwarzo advised investors to take advantage of the scheme before the December 31, 2017 deadline.
He explained that only 46,176 investors enrolled in the third quarter, contrary to the 150,000 projection for the period.
He said: “In the last three or four months, there has not been appreciable increase in terms of number of enrolment, that is why we felt there is a need for us to have a conversation with the registrars and bankers.
“The registrars agreed to the discussion, we expect in the next two or three months to see a significant improvement in terms of enrolment.
“To leverage on that and to be able to optimise the support we have received, SEC has also been in the vanguard of public enlightenment,’’ Gwarzo said.
The SEC boss insisted that any investor who failed to register before the deadline would pay the sum of N150 for registration.
Meanwhile, Mr Samuel Oluyemi, the Head, Vertical Markets Group, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), explained that a total of 50,819 e-dividend mandate registration in August and 59,204 in September were recorded.
Oluyemi said that the figure dropped to 37,153 in October against the targeted figure of 50, 000 registration monthly.
He stated that the drop in the e-dividend called for collaboration among key stakeholders with a view to driving SEC awareness campaign initiative.
“The free registration window is ending Dec. 31, 2017 and our expectation at NIBSS is to have 50,000 registrations every month,’’ he said.
Oluyemi stated that NIBSS dedication to the initiative was irreversible, adding that, 136 stockbrokers had been connected to the portal as well as 16 registrars.
He said: “What we have done with e-dividend portal is to ascribe each quoted companies to their registrars. When investors pick a form, the companies managed by those registrars are listed under them.
“The beauty of what we have put in place now is to ensure that stockbrokers begin to play a critical role in the e-dividend mandate registration of investors’’.
