By Ginika Okoye
Some banks unclaimed dividends have dropped drastically in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2025 as shown by their unaudited results posted on the Nigeria Exchange Group (NGX) platform.
A NAN correspondent who monitored the unaudited financial results on Sunday, reports that experts attributed the downward slide to intervention by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
NAN reports that Zenith Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc and First HoldCo Plc cumulatively posted N24 billion unclaimed dividends during the period under review against N95 billion recorded in 2024, a decrease of 74.7 per cent.
Zenith Bank Plc reported N3.88 billion as its unclaimed dividends against N30.6 billion recorded as of December 2024.
UBA Plc posted N9.59 billion unclaimed dividends against N45.99 billion recorded in 2024.
First HoldCo Plc N10.55 billion unclaimed dividends compared to N18.4 billion recorded in 2024.
Reacting to the development, some capital market experts and shareholders attributed the development to the practical steps taken by SEC on electronic dividends and treatment of unclaimed sums.
Prof. Uche Uwaleke, the Director, Institute of Capital Market Studies, Nasarawa State University Keffi, said SEC’s revamp of the e-Dividend Mandate Management System had made it easier for investors to link bank accounts and get paid electronically, instead of waiting for paper warrants.
Uwaleke, also the President, Capital Market Academics of Nigeria, said registrars and banks had tightened their Know Your Customer (KYC) drive.
He said the KYC consisted Bank Verification Number (BVN/NIN) matching address updates, and multiple subscription regularisation causing more dividends to reach the rightful owners.
Uwaleke described the development as healthy and capable of building confidence, liquidity and improved governance in the market.
According to him, paying cash promptly is the most credible investor-education campaign anyone can run.
“Furthermore, the current rule-book is clearer about how registrars and issuers should treat unclaimed sums and report them, which reduces the stock of unclaimed dividends that keeps rolling over year after year.
“As you know, cleaner dividend records reduce reconciliation disputes and make audits faster.
“Over time, consistently low unclaimed balances should narrow the trust gap that has kept many retail investors on the sidelines since the dematerialisation push,” he said.
Uwaleke advised SEC to keep pushing the e-dividend system until it became an effortless default for every investor.
“Consistent public reminders, simple onboarding at bank branches and AGMs, and tighter data verification will keep the numbers falling.
“Companies also need to play their part by cleaning up their shareholder registers before announcing dividends and by following up directly with investors whose details are incomplete.
“When regulators and issuers stay proactive together, unclaimed dividends stop piling up and investors get their money with far less friction,” Uwaleke said.
Mr Okechukwu Unegbu, a former President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, commended SEC and other regulatory bodies for their efforts towards the unclaimed dividends reduction.
Unegbu said dividends were being paid straight into an investor’s account and not waiting for them to fill forms.
“Once you are buying the shares, you enter your account details and all that.
“So, when dividends are declared, they are paid straight to the investor’s account. It is now direct to your account with the denominator.
“And they have also captured many people and have done a lot in terms of publishing for people to check their names on unclaimed dividends.
“For that reason, most people have discovered that they have unclaimed dividends over the years which they have now gone to claim through a filing automatically for them to get their dividends,” he said.
Mrs Bisi Bakare, the National Coordinator, Pragmatic Shareholders Association of Nigeria, said the drop in the figure of unclaimed dividends in banks was not unconnected to improved awareness among investors.
Bakare said investors were better informed on what to do to get their dividends paid unlike previous years.
She said the e-dividend system and SEC guidelines on how to manage unclaimed dividends contributed to the drop.
The national coordinator described the development as an improvement in the sector, saying it would give shareholders confidence to invest more.
“Now they do not keep unclaimed dividends like before because of the SEC new rule. So because of that, instead of sending the money to the Unclaimed Dividend Trust Fund, they prefer to give it to the owners of the money.
“I think that is the major cause and the awareness in the system now.
“It will give shareholders hope that whatever they invest, they are going to get their dividends.
“It is a very good one for investors and improvement in the side of the registrars of those companies,” she said.
Bakare advised registrars to ensure prompt payment when dividends were declared by companies.
NAN reports that SEC had released a circular saying that where dividends declared by a public company quoted on the NGX remained unclaimed for a period of six years or more, such dividends are expected to be transferred to the Unclaimed Funds Trust Fund (UFTF).
The commission said that such funds would be held in trust and managed pending when the shareholder presents a claim for such unclaimed dividends.
SEC also said that shareholders were entitled to continue to claim dividends that were not statute barred (not above 12 years) before Dec. 31, 2020 when the Finance Act 2020, came into effect.
“The commission hereby directs public companies and their registrars to continue to honour all requests by shareholders for the payment of unclaimed dividends as described above, with effect from Dec. 31, 2020.
“Public companies and Registrars are required to effect immediate compliance with this directive and submit periodic reports on the same in the manner prescribed in the commission’s Rules and Regulations,” SEC said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma
