By Peter Egwuatu

Shareholders of quoted companies in the country, under the aegis of Proactive Shareholders of Nigeria, PROSAN, have called on the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC to extend the period of its free e-dividend registration due to the breakdown of its portal.

The call for the extension is coming a day to the end of the free e-dividend registration exercise.

The members of the shareholders’ group, through its National Coordinator, Mr. Taiwo Oderinde, said: “We held a meeting and discussed on the increase in unclaimed dividend which had risen to over N60 billion and came up with solutions to reducing it. Meanwhile, our members have called on SEC to extend the deadline for the free e-dividend registration due to the fact that its portal has not been functioning for the past two weeks.

‘’After deliberation, we came up with decision to ask from the commission an extension as the shareholders could not access the registration portal for the past two weeks. The portal has not been functioning well and many shareholders are frustrated. Therefore, we are calling on the Acting Director General of SEC for the extension of closing date to enable more shareholders to register.”

It will be recalled that SEC, in reviewing the progress of the e-dividend registration exercise, after the December 31, 2017 deadline, noted that there was still a great influx of shareholders desirous of mandating their bank accounts for payment of dividends electronically.

In light of the foregoing, SECextended the period for the free e-Dividend registration exercise till February 28, 2018, to encourage more shareholders mandate their ban accounts.

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