Thirteen Blue-chip Firms Declared N68.7bn Unclaimed Dividend in 2024FY

Kayode Tokede

Despite massive investor education and the use of technology in the capital market, about 13 listed companies on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), reported a sum of N68.7 billion outstanding unclaimed dividend in the 2024 financial year, about 7.7 per cent increase over N63.8 billion declared in 2023.

At his first Capital Market Committee (CMC) meeting in Lagos, upon assumption of office, the Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dr. EmomotimiAgama disclosed that the total unclaimed dividend in the Nigeria’s capital market stood at N215 billion as of March 2024.

THISDAY analysis of the companies’ audited result and accounts for the period ended December 31, 2024 revealed that Zenith Bank Plc, followed by Nestle Nigeria have the highest amount of unclaimed dividend.

Zenith Bank’s unclaimed dividend stood at N30.6billion, representing an increase of 1.6 per cent from N30.12 billion reported in 2023., while Nestle Nigeria announced N8.97billion unclaimed dividend in 2024 a decline of 6.1 per cent from N9.6billion in reported in 2023.

Further analysis showed that while Stanbic IBTC Holding declared N8.41 billion unclaimed dividend in 2024 from N5.98billion in 2023, FCMB Group Plc reported N1.6 billion unclaimed dividend in 2024, a decline of 24 per cent from N2.1 billion in 2023, Stanbic

Notable companies with unclaimed dividend in 2024FY include: Dangote Cement Plc with N5.2 billion in 2024, about 11 per cent increase over N4.7 billion in 2023, Lafarge Africa Plc N2.95 billion, up by 42.3 per cent from N2.07 billion posted in 2023.

NB Plc that has not paid dividend for the second consecutive year announced N6.9 billion unclaimed dividend in 2024, up by 25.5 per cent from N5.5 billion in 2023.

On its part, Transcorp Incorporated declared N2.07 billion unclaimed dividend in 2024, representing an increase of 20 per cent from N1.73 billion in 2023, while Transcorp Hotel Plc declared N328.36million unclaimed dividend in 2024, a growth of 55 per cent from N211.96million in 2023. 

Others are:  Dangote Sugar Refinery with N39.54million; BUA Cement, N714.15mllion; NASCON, N635.9million; MTN Nigeria Communication announced N287.7million unclaimed dividend in 2024.    

MTN Nigeria Communication in its 2024FY result and accounts stated that, “In line with SEC guidelines, Coronation Registrars Limited returned to the Group the sum of N287.7 million unclaimed dividend during the year ended 31 December 2024 (31 December 2023: N381.5 million).

“Replenishment notices from registrars amounting to N525.9 million were received and honoured during the period (2023: N657.5 million). The total amount of unclaimed dividends outstanding as at 31 December 2024 is N612.5 billion (31 December 2023: N1.38 billion).

According to capital market stakeholders, as these companies declared dividend payout in audited results for period ended December 31, 2024, unclaimed dividend in the Nigerian capital market is expected to soar in 2025.

They maintained that unclaimed dividends reported by these companies are accumulated amounts mostly constituted before SEC introduced Electronic-Mandate initiatives, targeted at tackling unclaimed dividend menace in the Nigerian capital market.

Over the years, the capital market regulating body has endeavored to curb the escalating issue of unclaimed dividends in the capital market, albeit with limited success as the amount continues to rise annually.

The former Director-General, SEC, Mr. Lamido Yuguda had announced that the commission this year successfully launched a new e-Dividend Mandate Management System (eDMMS), making it easier for investors to mandate their accounts for electronic dividends. The link to the portal can be found on the SEC’s website.

On tackling unclaimed dividend, Agama at the CMC meeting stated that, “One of the other things we are going to do is to create an app which will be in the Google play store for people to download to enable them access their dividends real time and claim same. We are working with technology and that will deal with the issue about the increase.”

He stated that unclaimed dividend is a very important topic because it speaks to the investors themselves.

He explained further that “The reason why investors come to the market is to have returns and when the return is not getting to them it becomes a challenge and the SEC is very serious about it. Very recently the Senate Committee on capital market had a hearing on the matter and we were there fully. Fr us at the SEC, we believe that we can deal with it and that has taken us into rejiging the entire process.

“Very recently, the SEC and the Committee for Identity Management for the Capital Market looked at the entire spectrum of the unclaimed dividends issue and identified that the major issue is lack of identification of investors. That alone brings to the fore that technology will be a solution.

“So, we are looking at the full hog of the entire process trying to make sure that we identify people because one of the reasons why dividends are not paid to people is because of their account numbers and other missing details that are required by the companies to be able to do that.

“The SEC is in the fore front of making sure that the unclaimed dividends are reduced and at the end of the day completely erased. For the SEC, we will continue to do our best, we will employ technology, employ education, employ persuasion, we will employ every means that will cause people to understand the processes around claiming dividends, the processes around identification and the processes around making sure people understand what they need to do to get their dividends back. For us any effort to reduce these unclaimed dividends will be a positive one for us.”

He emphasised that accessing to Commission website to check for unclaimed dividend is safe and urged investors to take advantage of the opportunity to mandate their accounts.