The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has set up a committee to fix the deadline for investors with multiple and ghost accounts to merge into a single account which is said to be part of the reasons why unclaimed dividend had risen to over N80 billion.
The committee members were selected from the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, Central Securities Clearing System, CSCS Plc and stock broking firms. It said that, “The committee will come up with the relevant information that will be presented to SEC whether sanctions be made against such action or for the period of grace people will be allowed to amalgamate such account.”
The general manager, IT/Operations of the CSCS Plc, Mr. Joseph Mekiliuwa, said, In order not to clog the system, we encourage shareholders to consolidate their accounts; it is better and cheaper to maintain fewer accounts for ease of tracking investments.
He said: “In order not to clog the system, we encourage shareholders to consolidate their accounts; it is better and cheaper to maintain fewer accounts for ease of tracking investments. “However, we usually have multiple accounts arising from Initial Public Offering /Public Offering (IPO/PO) in which some investors would apply for the IPOs by toggling their names or using different permutations of their names to acquire shares to beat the system that has placed a cap to every investor’s allotment. Sometimes, non-natural persons names were used in different permutations with the implication that such accounts would become orphan accounts not tied to any living nor dead persons.”
Source : Leadership