By John Okoh
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Monday that the low level of investors’ enrolment in the ongoing e-dividend policy is not a cheery news to the commission.
Director General of the commission Mounir Gwarzo disclosed this to financial journalist at the post Capital Market Committee (CMC) Briefing in Lagos.
The disturbing aspect of the development was the disclosure by the Nigerian Inter Bank Settlement System Plc, (NIBSS) that the numbers of investors’ enrolment for the e-dividend program has significantly dropped from 50,819 in August to 59,204 in September and lower at 37,153 in the month of October 2017.
The drop in the e-dividend enrolment exercise led to the call by major collaborating stakeholders for a more vigorous awareness campaign. According to Samuel Oluyemi, Head Vertical Markets Group, expectation at NIBSS is to have 50,000 registration every month. “The dedication of NIBSS on E-dividend mandate irreversible. Mind you, 136 stockbrokers are connected to the portal with 9 registrars”, he said
Gwarzo appealed to the investing public to go to any bank branches in their locality and enrol, because the commission has already paid for the free services to banks, stressing that there is no going back on the December 31 deadline after which any investor will have to pay for the services.
He used the opportunity to appraise the market performance in 2017 as he acknowledge that the last three month has been very good as figures emanating from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Financial Market Dealers Quotation (FMDQ) and Nigerian Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) are looking up.
