The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced an extension of the forbearance window for investors with multiple accounts and subscriptions to September 2018.
The Acting Director-General of SEC, Ms Mary Uduk, stated this at the first 2018 post-Capital Market Committee (CMC) press briefing in Lagos.
The forbearance is to enable those who bought shares in multiple names to consolidate such multiple shareholder’s identities with the registrars and Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) into one that bears their official names.
A statement from SEC said Ms Uduk noted that during the market boom, some investors bought shares with different names which they had forgotten hence could no longer access the benefits of such investments.
The acting director general therefore called on the affected investors to take advantage of the forbearance window to rectify their accounts.
Uduk also expressed commitment to ensure listing of multinationals, adding that de-listing by quoted companies posed a threat to the growth of the capital market.
She said some highly capitalised companies had delisted, thereby, affecting the growth of the market.
According to her, the committee will meet with stakeholders and find out why they were delisting as well as discuss with eligible ones why they were not listed.
Uduk said some companies had complained of tax issues, and gave the assurance that the commission would engage the government to address the issue.
On e-dividend, she said the technical committee on e-dividend reported that the total and approved mandate currently stood at 2.5 million, translating into 466,000 unit investors.
Also, Uduk disclosed that retail players in the domestic capital market invested N5bn in the Sukuk (ethical) bond issued by the Federal Government last year.
The amount represents 5% of the N100bn bond with a seven-year tenor, for fixing 25 key economic road projects across the six geo-political zones, with N16.67bn earmarked for road projects in each geo-political zone.
