FG Gives Companies Deadline to Surrender Unclaimed Dividend

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• Firms make last effort to pay verifiable claims

BY Bonny Amadi

In pursuant of its determination to takeover unclaimed dividend of shareholders in the Nigerian capital market, the federal government through its appointed agencies have committed to the operationalization establishment of unclaimed dividend Trust fund with mandate to companies to surrender such funds under their kity to the government.

The pressure on listed companies to surrender all unclaimed dividend in the procession to the fund was made public recently when the Managing Director of a company listed on the NGX Exchange at his company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) said that deadline has been given to all companies to surrender the unclaimed dividend or face sanction.

The company’s Managing Director whose names are being with-held in this report to avoid sanctions by regulators, strengthened call for shareholders with unclaimed dividend issues to ensure redemption of such funds, before the government takes it over, as he expressed fears that the process redeeming such funds under government custody could be cumbersome because of bureaucracies associated with government.

According to the CEO, an order has been given to the company’s registrar to ensure payment of unclaimed dividends to rightful verified owners who come up to make a claim, having proved beyond doubt, the authenticity of their ownership of such funds.

This order, he said, is to avoid leaving such shareholders to contend with the government that urgently seeks such funds, as they have been given a mandate to surrender the funds or face sanction.

Meanwhile, as of June 2025, Nigeria’s capital market unclaimed dividends totalled N242 billion, according to data from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Notwithstanding technological advances and regulatory reforms including the e-Dividend mandate system, these funds continue to grow and lie dormant.

The N242 billion figure continues to grow steadily over the years, from N158.4 billion in 2019 to N190 billion in 2023, and now N242 billion, highlighting systemic inefficiencies in investor identification and payout administration.

As part of renewed efforts to tackle the rising backlog, on June 10, 2025, SEC issued a circular directing public companies and their registrars to comply with the Finance Act 2020, which mandates that dividends unclaimed for six years or more be transferred to the Unclaimed Funds Trust Fund (UFTF). Until the UFTF becomes operational, companies are required to honour all valid claims, including those not statute-barred before December 31, 2020.

Unclaimed dividends are derived from shareholders’ failure to collect dividend payouts, often due to outdated records, lack of awareness, or complications arising from inheritance cases. In 1999, unclaimed dividends were valued at N2.09 billion, rising to N90 billion in 2015 and N158.44 billion by 2019, largely driven by increased retail investor participation following the banking consolidation of the early 2000s.