SEC to Create New e-Dividend Portal

As the crises of unclaimed dividend lingers, the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, has concluded arrangement to create a new e-dividend portal that will facilitate the processing of shareholders’ dividend payment.

The Director General of SEC, Lamido Yuguda, disclosed this last weekend while answering questions on the perennial problem of unclaimed dividends during the post Capital Market Committee, CMC media briefing, saying, “The Committee under the leadership of the Commission, has embarked on the creation of a new e-dividend portal, which is expected to become operational on the 30th of November 2023.”

He stated further: “When the portal comes into operation, it will simplify the process of mandating accounts for e-dividend. It will improve efficiency and ultimately lead to a significant fall in unclaimed dividends.”

As part of  its efforts to ensure that new dividends do not become unclaimed, Yuguda said the Commission is presently supporting work on an identity management system that would ensure that investors and market participants are properly identified to forestall the problems that led to accumulation of unclaimed dividends.

Commenting on what is currently driving the Nigerian Exchange Exchange, NGX market capitalisation upward, he said: “The market is driven by renewed local investor confidence with low foreign investors’ participation. The foreign investors are faced with foreign exchange, forex, challenges, that is why they are not attracted to invest more in the market, but the government has begun moves to address that and hopefully, the foreign investors would bounce back to our market.”

On the commodities market, Lamido said that it is also growing in leaps and bounds, informing that the Commission has registered five commodities exchanges and supported their growth. It also supported the on-going revamp of the Nigerian Commodities Exchange (NCX) by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The inaugural FCMB, Hackathon challenge has produced team Hi-Tech, led by Afolabi Ayanfe and Sophia Ezeh, as winner of the top prize of N3 million for the creation of the digital financial solution,  Padi4Life.

In  partnership with Ingressive For Good (I4G), the hackathon launched a new cohort of technologists and fostered innovation and creative problem-solving.

With over 2,900 entries and 60 competing teams participating in a 72-hour hackathon, team Hi-Tech’s  Padi4Life  made the final shortlist. It stood out for its peer-to-peer lending, asset tokenisation, and blockchain-based investment and engagement features.

Rita Onwudiwe and Augustus Shaminga of Team  KoloPadi  secured the N1 million first runner-up prize for their  KoloPadi  solution. The second runner-up prize of N500,000 went to Victor Tochukwu of Team Xperia for its Money Minder solution.

Rolayo Akhigbe, Divisional Head, Transaction Banking at FCMB, stressed the bank’s commitment to innovation through open banking. She urged FinTechs, developers, and start-ups to utilise First City Monument Bank’s Application Programming Interface (API) to develop inclusive and sustainable solutions.

Diran Olojo, Group Head, Corporate Affairs, FCMB, encouraged winners and participants to collaborate with the bank, saying that Open Banking is the future.