The Board of Trustees of the Investor Protection Fund has said that 23 investors have been paid N7.2m as compensation from the fund.
According to the board, 131 other people are in the process of getting paid claims from the fund.
In all, the IPF Board has approved claims by 154 investors after reviewing claims made by 429 investors.
The Vice-Chairperson, IPF Board, Lawrence Anga, who said this in Lagos on Monday at a briefing on the fund, explained that N40.6m would be paid to the 154 investors whose claims had been approved.
Anga briefed journalists about the fund, along with other members of the IPF Board of Trustees including the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Mr. Oscar Onyema.
He explained that following the reconstitution of the IPF Board in 2012, the board, under the leadership of Gamaliel Onosede, ensured that it first put in place an appropriate governance structure for the fund and adopted best practices for its operations.
Subsequently, it drafted rules for the fund, which were later adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission after which it got an auditor and then converted the fund’s accounts to International Financial Reporting Standard accounts.
Anga expressed satisfaction that after years of work, investors had started accessing the fund.
“It has been a long, rigorous and transparent process getting to this stage and we assure you that we will continue along this line,” he said.
Onyema explained that the takeoff of the IPF affirmed the commitment of the Exchange’s to investor protection.
The IPF is a statutory fund established pursuant to Section 197 of the ISA to compensate investors who suffer pecuniary loss arising from the revocation or cancellation of the registration of a dealing member firm by the Securities and Exchange Commission; and the insolvency, bankruptcy or negligence of a dealing member firm of the Exchange.
It is also aimed at compensating investors who suffer losses arising from “defalcation committed by a dealing member firm or any of its directors, officers, employees or representatives in relation to securities, money or any property entrusted to, or received or deemed received by the dealing member firm in the course of its business as a dealing member firm”.
The claimants were found to be eligible for compensation in accordance with the relevant provisions of the ISA and the IPF Rules.
A statement by the Exchange earlier this month had explained that the Board of Trustees, in accordance with the rules of the fund, had set a maximum compensation amount of N400,000 per claimant.
The statement had, however, put the figure of claimants at 158 and the amount due to them at N42.2m
But Anga explained that the figure was reduced to 154 after it was discovered that four of the claimants were in reality not eligible for compensation.
On the rationale behind pegging the maximum claim at N400,000, Onyema explained that it was meant to compensate investors for their losses, not necessarily to repay them.
Onyme had earlier said, “Though the compensation payment may not be a complete restoration, it is a show of good faith on our part to investors. I thank the Board of Trustees for their guidance and commitment, the claimants for their valuable patience, and all other stakeholders for their contributions towards the success of this exercise.”
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