SEC urges investors to regularise shareholdings before deadline

The Security Exchange Commission (SEC), has  enjoined investors in the nation’s capital market to regularise their shareholding accounts before the December 31 deadline.

The Ag. Director-General of the Commission, Mrs. Mary Uduk, gave the advice in Lagos at the 1st Quarter Post Capital Market Committee (CMC) media briefing.

She said the committee had made progress in resolving issues relating to share regularisation and multiple accounts, saying that this was facilitated through engagement with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

She further stated that for the account regularisation, some investors in the Diaspora had been able to consolidate their investments and urged the local investors to do same.

On the issue of implementation of complaint management framework, Uduk said the 

the Commission has ensured that all Trade Groups are duly registered, it is working on institutionalizing periodic meetings with the Heads of Trade Groups to define their roles and address their challenges.

She, however ,said that the capital market community recognizes the importance of the E-IPO project to improve issuance processes and encourage more investor participation, adding that the draft framework for its implementation has been developed and presented at the CMC meeting and the commission has exposed the framework and rules guiding the e-IPO, for stakeholders to review and send their suggestions for improvement before the end of this month.

She however, said that engagement between the Commission and CBN on margin lending has since started, stressing that  deliberations are still ongoing on the inclusion of bank shares in the margin list.

She stated that the market-wide committee on identity management and account validation for transactions in the capital market has been encouraged  to fast track its activities.

Uduk pointed out that In furtherance of this initiative, the Commission is planning to engage the CBN to facilitate the validation process through the Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).

“The focus is to ensure that every investor duly regularises the share account because while E-dividend system is growing and reduces the rate of unclaimed dividend, the issue of multiple accounts is a challenge,” Uduk said.

Uduk added that SEC was planning activities to sensitise the Nigeria Governors’ Forum on commodity exchange.

According to her, the Commission will direct public companies to address shareholders on 

the benefits of distributing annual reports and payment of dividend electronically.

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