The Nation Newspaper

Tag: unclaimed

  • ‘219,252 drivers’ licences unclaimed’

    The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) yesterday said it produced and dispatched 698,252 driver’s licences between January and July nationwide.

    Corps Marshal Boboye Oyeyemi said this at a one-day workshop for Sector Heads of FRSC driver’s licence centres in Abuja.

    Oyeyemi said out of the total, 219,252 licences, representing 31 per cent, had not been claimed by their owners.

    The development, he stated, was a major impediment to efforts by the corps to ensure efficiency in the production and distribution of licences across the country.

    “FRSC has achieved improved production capacity whereby permanent licences are produced in less than 60 days of capturing.

    “But, owners have developed the attitude of not turning up promptly to collect their produced licences, thereby creating large number of unclaimed licenses,” he said.

    The corps marshal also blamed state Boards of Internal Revenue for failing to distribute the licences after production by the FRSC as agreed in a tripartite arrangement.

    According to him, some state governments have refused to provide befitting offices, security and electricity supply to facilitate the distribution of the licences.

    He also identified inadequate testing of drivers by some Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIOs) as another setback in the driver’s licensing process.

    Reacting to a recent media report that exposed massive fraud in the driver’s licence issuance process, Oyeyemi said the corps must rise up to the occasion and close all loopholes.

    The report revealed how driving school operators allegedly collude with some officials of FRSC and state traffic management agencies to undermine the driver’s licensing process.

    The FRSC boss said the corps must return to the drawing board and carry out a total restructuring of the Driving School Standardisation Programme (DSSP).

    At a meeting with driving school operators in Owerri on Monday, Oyeyemi had issued a 60-day ultimate for them to fully comply with the standards set in the DSSP or risk closure.

    Reiterating the deadline at Wednesday’s forum, he directed relevant officers of the corps to ensure strict enforcement of the ultimatum.

    Oyeyemi warned officers and men of the corps against driver’s licence racketeering, emphasising that anyone found wanting would be dismissed and prosecuted.

    The corps marshal also frowned at the attitude of driver’s licence applicants who induced the driving school operators and FRSC officials to compromise the process.

    “Nigerians should stop undermining government policies; you paid for driving school training, but did not attend, only to show up after 30 days to collect certificate.

    “That is crass irresponsibility, and you want to kill yourself and other road users, but FRSC is saying ‘no!’

    “The driving schools must have integrity and a sense of responsibility; they must be loyal to the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.

  • Anxiety over N100b unclaimed dividends

    As anxiety over the fate of the over N100billion unclaimed dividends heighten, shareholders have impressed on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the need to extend the deadline.

    It may be recalled that SEC announced February 28th deadline for shareholders to conclude e-payment registration for unclaimed dividends.

    According to SEC, the review of the progress in the e-dividend registration exercise, after the December 31, 2017 deadline, showed that there was still a great influx of shareholders desirous of mandating their bank accounts for payment of dividends electronically. “In light of the foregoing, the SEC, as part of its developmental role, has extended the period for the free e-dividend registration exercise till February 28, 2018, to encourage more shareholders mandate their bank accounts.

    Acting Director General of SEC, Dr. Abdul Zubair, who made the announcement at a press briefing recently, enjoined all the investors who were yet to register to key in.

    He said “Such investors should continue to approach their banks or registrars, as usual to seamlessly mandate their bank accounts for the collection of their dividends electronically, including unclaimed dividends, not exceeding 12 years of issue.”

    Zubair also announced an extension of the forbearance window for multiple accounts consolidation to March 31, 2018.

    However, The Nation was reliably informed that an extension may have been granted to the shareholders yet to perfect their registration.

    Although the Commission was yet to official declare a further extension of the deadline, inside sources at SEC confided in our correspondent at the weekend that registration was still ongoing at no extra cost to the affected persons.

    “There is no update as such”, the source said. “Registration continues, investors won’t be required to pay anything for now.”

    (Full story on pages 38-39)

  • What to do with unclaimed dividends

    What to do with unclaimed dividends

    Yearly, billions of naira that should have been paid to shareholders as dividends are not claimed. With more than N50 billion of such funds unclaimed, stakeholders are exploring options for managing the funds, reports Capital Market Editor Taofik Salako.

    Unclaimed dividend’s a thorny issue in the capital market. Nearly every stakeholder is an expert on why there are billions of naira in unclaimed dividends yearly. As at the last count,  the unclaimed dividends stood at over N50 billion.

    The electronic-dividend (e-dividend) payment system being spearheaded by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has led to investors reclaiming N29.27 billion from outstanding unclaimed dividends between November 2015 and last October. The reclaimed amount represented nearly one-third of the estimated total unclaimed dividends of N90 billion by November 2015.

    The e-dividend platform is structured to automatically credit the bank accounts of the registered investors once the recommended dividend is approved. Registration for e-dividend has enabled investors with backlog of unclaimed dividends to automatically trace and receive such dividends.

    A dividend warrant becomes statute-barred, that is, unclaimed and due for return to the originating company after 12 years. But before this, it only becomes temporarily invalid after six months and this could be solved by simply taking it to the Registrars for revalidation, which can be for as many times as possible. With e-dividend, Registrars automatically revalidate and pay unclaimed dividends to the registered bank account  under the e-dividend platform.

     

    What is at play

    There have been many reasons for the menace of unclaimed dividends. Dividend is used in generic sense as well as specific sense to refer to Return on Investment (RoI). In generic sense, dividend refers to all gains that accrue on an investment including cash payouts, scrip or bonus shares and capital gain. But dividend is usually used in relation to cash dividend-the periodic distribution of net profit from the business to shareholders.

    One of the crucial roles of the Registrar to a company is the distribution of cash dividends to shareholders.The board of the company recommends possible cash payout, closure date for register of members and payment date to shareholders, who usually approve these recommendations at a general meeting and thereafter, the gross value of the dividend is deposited with the Registrar for onward distribution to shareholders. Unfortunately, the problem of unclaimed dividends has made the process of dividend payment not as straight as enunciated.

    There have been accusations and counter-accusations between shareholders on one side and registrars and companies on the other. Shareholders’ poor attitude to dividend generally encourages bad corporate practices, which in many instances have compounded failures of some companies. Companies have been alleged to borrow certain sum to pay dividend with mindset that certain percentage may not be claimed by their owners.

    Shareholders have also alleged that some companies and their registrars collude to delay dividend payment or create unclaimed dividend for them to trade with the money. Unclaimed dividend attracts no interest and it is theoretically assumed that the unclaimed part or the gross dividend is in the account of the registrar “lying fallow”.

    But it could also not be denied that many unclaimed dividends resulted from poor understanding of the intricacies and processes of dividend payment by shareholders. Being a “cheque,” the requirement of a “current account” to convert dividend warrant into raw cash had until recently been a major hurdle to many small investors, who were operating mostly “saving deposit account.”

    Financial services authorities only recently approved payment of dividend into non-current accounts. Besides, several shareholders have been known to dump their dividend warrants at home because of the seeming intangibility of dividend. For instance, a dividend per share of 10 kobo would result into a net sum of N90 on 1000 ordinary shares. With the cheque-like nature of dividend warrant and the intangibility of some dividends, many shareholders who received their warrant merely dump them somewhere.

    Changes in major personal details of the shareholder such as change of address, signature, incorrect entry and death, among others also contributed to the unclaimed dividend problem. Also, inefficient public utility had contributed to the huge bags of unclaimed and undelivered mails. Gone were the days when the post-office officials moved through the nooks and crannies of cities and towns to drop letters.

    Shareholders’ activist and one of the co-founders of Nigeria Shareholders Solidarity Association (NSSA), Alhaji Gbadebo Olatokunbo, said there were credible evidence to believe in the conspiracy theory of registrars and companies. SEC also cited alleged abuse of dividend payment process, including diversion, as one of the reasons why the apex capital market regulators sought to change the custody of unclaimed dividends from registrars.

     

    Multi-faceted approach

    Stakeholders have shown more commitments to resolving the unclaimed dividend problem in recent years. There have been many regulatory initiatives to ease the process of dividend payment and block the loopholes that could lead to sharp practices. The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) will on January 1, 2017 start implementing new rules that impose sanctions on any company that makes spurious interim dividend payment without the fundamental basis to support such interim dividend distribution. According to the rules, any company that declares interim dividend during any financial year, and thereafter records accumulated losses at the end of that financial year shall, if it is discovered that the declaration of dividends was not justified by the availability of profit for distribution, be liable to pay a fine.

    Besides, no company or any other issuer shall declare interim dividends or bonuses without first preparing and filing accounts, which shall form the basis of such declaration or action. Also, no company shall declare final dividends without first preparing and filing audited accounts, which shall form the basis of such declaration or action.

    For any infraction under the new rules, companies shall be liable to pay fines of up to 100 per cent of the nominal value of the dividends or bonuses declared. The new rules seek to protect investors and forestall market manipulation through spurious dividend recommendation and false sense of strong earnings.

    Bogus dividend declaration had been fingered as one of the reasons for the large unclaimed dividends as companies sought to manipulate dividend payment and distribution in the absence of the adequate earnings to meet the payment.

    The implementation of the NSE’s rules will herald the discontinuance of dividend warrant as from June 30, 2017. Capital market stakeholders under the auspices of the Capital Market Committee (CMC) earlier this year reached the decision to stop issuance of dividend warrants as payments for dividends from June 30, 2017. Shareholders will thereafter fully receive their dividends through the e-dividend directly into their bank accounts. This, stakeholders had argued, will block many loopholes.

    SEC had earlier strengthened its rules on payment of dividends. SEC Rule 204 stipulates that a separate interest yielding escrow account shall be opened by a company within 24 hours of the approval of dividends at a general meeting in the case of final dividends or a board meeting in the case of interim dividends, and evidence of such opening must be forwarded to SEC and the company within 24 hours of the account being opened.

    Also, the rule provides that the total dividend declared by the company shall be paid en-bloc into the said escrow account within 24 hours after the opening of the account and evidence of such payment forwarded to SEC and the Registrar within 24 hours. Besides, the Registrar is expected to forward a monthly statement of account certified by the bank to SEC detailing the outflow and inflow into the accounts and the accrued interests on the dividend.

    Failure to open and fully fund the account by the dividend-declaring company within the stipulated timeline shall attract a penalty of N1million per day and a further penalty of five per cent above the Monetary Policy Rate on the amount declared. Also, in the event of failure to effect dividend payment either by electronic transfer or dispatch of dividend warrant to beneficiaries within the stipulated time, the Registrar shall be liable to a penalty of N1 million for every day of default.

    Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Director-General, Mr. Mounir Gwarzo, said the full automation of dividend payment will ensure that shareholders receive their dividends without delay. According to him, the e-dividend would stem the menace of unclaimed dividend and also ensure that the registrars can automatically pay the backlog of unclaimed dividends to verified shareholders’ bank accounts.

    Gwarzo, who declared the e-dividend payment process as a game changer, said e-dividend allows investors to reclaim outstanding unclaimed dividends of 12 years while the use of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) to authenticate account owners provides additional assurance against malpractices.

    He noted that while a total of 1.4 million bank accounts have been mandated for the e-dividend payment, SEC will consider further extension of the free registration period for the e-dividend pointing out that registration for the e-dividend can be done at any of the branches of Nigerian banks nationwide.

    Under the extended period, SEC would bear the cost of registration on behalf of any investor who registered. At the expiration of the grace period, subsequent registration of an investor would attract a fee of N100.

    “E-dividend is in the best interest of the retail investors, we are doing all these to encourage retail investors,” Gwarzo said.

    Head, Vertical Markets Group, Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), Mr. Samuel Oluyemi, said banks had reached agreements to ensure seamless registration and operation of the e-dividend. He noted that with BVN, shareholders can submit their e-dividend mandate by proxy. Oluyemi noted that 29 million bank accounts e-dividend in a market with less than five million retail investors should be easier.

    Head, Depository and Customer Care, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) PLC, Mr. Lateef Lawal, said the CSCS, the clearing house for the stock market, has the adequate framework to ensure seamless automation of all payments in the stock market. Besides the e-dividend, capital market stakeholders had decided to adopt direct payment system, known as direct cash settlement (DCS), for transactions on the stock market. Under the DCS, payment will be made directly by the CSCS into the investors’ accounts rather than the current practice of payment to the stockbrokers for onward disbursement to their clients.

    Many stakeholders have also called for amendment to provision of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) that limits the lifespan of dividend in order to ensure that shareholders or their beneficiaries could claim their dividend at any point in time. Already, a committee of the CMC is working with the National Assembly on the amendment of CAMA and other capital market-related laws. A shareholder, Akeem Adeleke, noted that shareholders or their heirs and beneficiaries should be able to claim their dividends at any time once the ownership of such dividend has been established.

  • Unclaimed dividends

    The N90 billion still in the SEC vaults reflects technology lag

    With about N90billion as unclaimed dividends, we support the sensitisation walk organised by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to encourage investors on the need to key into the e-platform created for the purpose of enabling them claim their dividends electronically. Addressing journalists at a function in Abuja, the Head Marketing Development, SEC, Mr. Henry Adekunle Rowland, who made the disclosure, put it succintly: the essence of the sensitisation walk was “to encourage investors to provide the necessary information so they could be able to claim their dividends electronically”. According to him “e-dividend means electronic dividend and dividend is the profit which an investor gets from the company which he has invested his money”.

    We join the SEC in imploring investors to go and register on the platform in order to collect their dividends electronically in their preferred banks. Investors are expected to go to their banks to fill a form which will contain certain information, account numbers (whether saving or current), their passport photographs, and Bank Verification Number (BVN). Not only that, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) number will be required “if you are already de-materialised”, but if you are not, “you will go with your share certificate number after which you will be validated using Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) portal where the e-dividend form is actually located”.

    It is only after a successful validation that the completed forms would be sent to the registrars of companies who would then consolidate all the investors’ dividends before commencing payments. According to Rowland, “the objective of this initiative is to make sure that the N90bn unclaimed dividends are depleted within the next six months after the completion of this exercise”.

    Dividend warrants (DWs) are investors’ entitlements, so it is only fair that they  reap the fruits of their labour. But, because DWs are usually sent by post, they sometimes do not get to their owners, or get to them late. Apart from this, some investors would have changed their addresses so that when the DWs got to their former residences, the people there may not know their new residential addresses. The same is true for those using post office boxes. In some cases, these are changed or closed as a result of transfers or inability to pay the rent.

    In both cases, DWs are lost while in some cases postmasters may use their discretion by sending unclaimed dividends back to the companies. Sometimes too, the amount involved may be so small that investors simply put aside such dividend warrants which they do not think is worth the trouble of going to the banks to lodge.

    It is good that the SEC realised some of these challenges and therefore came up with the e-platform last year. However, the commission should do more by way of engagement and also simplify the cumbersome procedure for e-payment of dividend warrants. As it is now, it is very likely that many of the unclaimed dividends would remain unclaimed as many investors may not be disposed to the cumbersome procedures listed by SEC before an individual investor could claim his unclaimed dividends.

    The apathy that investors showed on their unclaimed dividends, which led to the whopping N90bn of unclaimed dividends, may not abate with the present procedures. Also, the idea of setting six months deadline for the cumbersome exercise is not necessary or helpful for, under the prevailing conditions and general apathy of investors concerning unclaimed dividends, it is unlikely that even 50 percent of the N90bn unclaimed dividends would have been fully claimed at the end of the day.

    The commission should do more by way of public enlightenment to make investors aware of the e-platform, especially as not many investors are aware of its existence as of today. If this succeeds or is made to succeed, it would be to the interest of investors. With the e-platform it would no longer be the business of an investor to take DWs to the bank as the warrants are automatically sent to an investor’s bank account once he keys into the platform.

  • Resolve unclaimed dividend issue, govt urges SEC, NSE

    The Federal Government yesterday urged the authorities of the Securities of Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to find lasting solution to the lingering crisis of unpaid dividends, by working out modalities on how the idle money can be paid to investors.

    Giving the advice at the 3rd Annual Retreat of the Capital Market Committee (CMC) in Abuja yesterday, the Minister of State for Finance, Dr Yerima Lawan Ngama, said it was no longer desirable to have the over N60 billion unclaimed dividends unpaid to their owners, especially retail investors, at a time the collective desire is to attract more investments into the nation’s capital market.

    The Minister commended the 38.8 per cent growth in the capital market this year but noted that there was need to explore other untapped investment opportunities for the market in order to create the medium and long term investible funds crucial for the infrastructure rehabilitation agenda of the three tiers of government.

    Ngama said one of the challenges that must be addressed is the opening up of the capital market for new investors, “particularly retail investors who are yet to really see it as a source of wealth creation.”

    The Minister of state for finance disclosed that government was “planning a forum where all the Distribution Companies (DISCOS) and Generating Companies (GENCOS) of the newly privatized electricity companies will come and tell everybody their story and aspirations and what they need to reach where they want to reach because one of the big things they need is not only ideas but commission.”

    He told capital market participants that those invited to come and hear the stories of the DISCOS and GENCOS “are multilateral financial institutions, the IFC, Islamic Development Bank, all of them are coming to seek opportunities that they can invest. But don’t expect them to come and list before they get the money. Try to have funds that people can invest in and guarantee them certain returns and tell them that these companies are investing in companies that will provide the infrastructure in the country. By so doing we will really assist them.”

    Ngama said, “the market over-reacted to the activities of 2008, most of our companies are doing well, but because of the global trend, and the preponderance of foreign investors, their action brought our market down. So, all we need now is confidence building because the facts on ground support our market is strong as it is portrayed today.”

  • PenCom, PenOp set to tackle unclaimed retirement benefits

    PenCom, PenOp set to tackle unclaimed retirement benefits

    THE National Pension Commission (PenCom) and the Pension Fund Operators (PenOp) are to address the problems of unclaimed retirement benefits of retirees.

    PenOp’s President, Dave Udeanu, said some retirees have refused to collect their benefits from their Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), adding that the development has made operators to intensify efforts at locating them and their families without success.

    He said operators would continue to educate the public, adding that the challenge cannot be tackled overnight.

    Worried by this development, PenCom has directed PFAs to advertise the names of the affected retireees in the national dailies. Dauda Ahmed of Corporate Strategy Unit, PenCom, who make this known, said the PFAs have also been directed to visit the last place of employment or address of the retirees to obtain any available contact information or those of their next-of kin in an effort to trace them and ensure that outstanding benefits are processed for payment.

    He said: “In effect, we wish to confirm that there are no “unclaimed pensions” with PFAs in the real sense of it, but possible issues of temporary delay in processing the withdrawal of pensions/terminal benefits due mainly to loss of contact.

    “The balance in the Retirement Savings Account (RSA) of a retiree comprises the proceeds of his retirement bond, his contributions from July, 2004 to the month of retirement and the investment income. At the point of retirement, the retiree is expected to submit necessary documents to, and discuss with the PFA on his preferred mode of withdrawal of his pensions. The retiree has the option of either Programmed Withdrawal (PW) which provides pension over the expected lifespan through the PFA or purchase of annuity from an Insurance Company which ensures payment of pension for life.

    According to him, these payments can only be made after the Commission had granted approval of the agreement entered into by the retiree with his Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) regarding the mode of withdrawal of his benefit.

    “Nevertheless, there could be delays by retirees or next of kin in the case of death benefits in accessing retirement or terminal benefits, but not “unclaimed pensions,” he said, adding that such delays can be attributed mainly to the inability of the PFA to contact the retiree who may have retired to his village without leaving an active contact address with the PFA.

    He urged the public to always liaise with pension operators to sort out issues, adding that the new pension scheme is poised to provide comfortable life style for retirees.

    Meanwhile, operators in the pension industry have said they would leverage on the integration of businesses in the informal sector to increase the number of contributors from 5.2 million currently to about 20 million by 2017.

    Udeanu, who disclosed this at a media parley in Lagos, said several additional incentives are being proposed to make the pension scheme more beneficial to persons working in the informal sector, who accounts for over 60 per cent of the working population in the country.

    He noted that the PenCom has released an exposure draft of the framework for the participation of persons operating in the informal sector, stressing that the draft is currently being finalised.

    He said the framework once released would ensure the participation of persons working in the informal sector and effectively increase the coverage of the scheme.

    Udeanu said PenCom will also before the end of the first quarter of this year, incorporate a multi-fund structure for Retirement Saving Accounts (RSA) funds, into the amended investment guidelines.

    He said: “The decision to introduce the multi-fund structure in the first quarter 2013, is to allow enough time for public education and sensitisation by the commission and also allow operators enough time to be ready to implement the structure.

    “The multi-fund would be primarily differentiated by their overall exposure to variable income instruments and a contributor’s choice of funds may be limited based on the age of the contributor. Also the multi-fund structure would likely also allow for the introduction of a non – interest or ethical fund.”

    Managing Director ARM Pension Managers Limited, Sadiq Mohammed, on pension contributory recovery agents, said the agents have visited about 8,584 firms out of 15,760 identified as non-compliant by not remitting their workers’ contributory retirement funds to the appropriate quarters, adding that over N2.5 billion is expected to be recovered from the identified defaulters.

    He said demand notices and accounts details of pension custodians for remitting deducted pensions have been sent to the firms visited.

  • ‘Fed Govt may retain N52b unclaimed dividends’

    ‘Fed Govt may retain N52b unclaimed dividends’

    Except a bill is passed for companies to keep unclaimed dividends in perpetuity, the Federal Government may walk away with about N52 billion unclaimed dividends.

    Director/Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr Kennedy Aigbekaen, said though the exact amount trapped in the unclaimed dividends funds is unknown, a bill would be passed for companies to keep the unclaimed dividends in perpetuity, or in the alternative, the money will revert to the government.

    According to Aigbekaen, “as regards the figure, there is some harmonisation going on. I cannot say what the exact figure is; some say it is N40 billion, while others say it is N52 billion.The point is there is a discrepancy in the figures registrars have.”

    He added: “In other parts of the world, when dividends are unclaimed, they revert to the state because dividends are like property, no property can be vacant. In every society once a property is vacant, it goes to the state because the state takes care of everybody.

    “That is the way unclaimed dividends must be treated. People must be able to claim their funds as long as they can prove it, that will require changing the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), or making new laws to attend to this,” he stated.

    He said the “Monitoring and Investigation Department of the SEC, is meeting with Registrars and other stakeholders to harmonise positions and come up with the exact figure that is trapped as unclaimed dividends, adding that many stakeholders are responding so the figures may change, it may be higher or lower, depending on the harmonisation that is going on.”

    He said SEC has sent the “unclaimed dividends bill to the National Assembly, but was shot down, probably through the efforts of other stakeholders who didn’t like it.”

    He noted: “Once dividend is declared, it is no longer the fund of the company, it becomes a debt the company owes the shareholders. As at today, if after 12 years a dividend is unclaimed, the company can use it outside its operations.”

    Aigbekaen said unclaimed dividends persist because of change in address, cases of multiple applications as some people can no longer remember the addresses they used to receive their warrants and they did not update the information on their applications, and the refusal of many banks to pay dividend warrants into savings accounts.

    One way of dealing with the problem, he said, “is for dividends to be issued electronically and once that is done, all the registrar has to do is to credit the accounts of investors within hours of the declaration of dividends rather than having investors wait for years before they get their dividends.

    “Another way of dealing with the problem will be through government’s intervention by making laws and passing the unclaimed dividend bill because with CAMA, as it is today, you cannot get your dividend after a specified period, but if that bill is passed, it will be in perpetuity so that anytime you get to know about your unclaimed dividends and you can prove it then you can have it from the unclaimed dividend trust funds office.”

    The SEC Board secretary also disclosed that the capital market will soon have investors’ complaints procedure for resolving disputes between investors and stock brokers.

    According to Aigbekaen “as at today what we are trying to do is to formalize it so that everybody will know what the process is. The process that is being proposed is before the rules committee of the commission and will soon be finalized, why we have not finalized it is because there is something being done by the market itself so also the committee on investor confidence is doing something and we need to harmonize positions.”

    The format he disclosed is “if you raise a complaint we will tell the complainant to go and discuss with the person he is laying the complaint against, that operator must be able to resolve the complaint within ten days, if he is unable to resolve the matter then it gets to the stock exchange and the stock exchange will have not more than 90 days to deal with the complaint, that is the way the framework is fashioned, if the exchange is unable to resolve the matter then you come to the commission where we will evaluate the matter.

    The SEC he said trying to institute alternative dispute resolution mechanism in which case the market will have a pool of arbitrators so that when such a matter comes before the commission the complaint will be sent to the tribunal or arbitration depending on the nature of the complaint, what it means is that the commission will no longer be addressing customer complaints.

    As soon as all those involved harmonize positions with the market there is the issue of length of time which has to be addressed before the mechanism takes off for complaints management systems.

    He lamented that “it is not healthy for market, NSE and the Commission to be dealing with a particular at the same time so complaints will now be in stages.”

    The SEC he added will “also encourage electronic complaints that will be sent to the portals and once that is done, the SEC will see it, NES will see it and the operator who is complained against will see it, in which case if the operator is not doing anything the NSE and the SEC will know because the time the complaint was filed will be seen on the portal. So if in ten days nothing happens we expect the NSE to ask questions.”

  • EFCC objects to return of unclaimed $15m to Delta

    EFCC objects to return of unclaimed $15m to Delta

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has urged the Federal High Court in Abuja not to order the release of the unclaimed $15 million (about N2.4 billion) “Ibori loot” to the Delta State Government.

    The money was paid into the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by the EFCC, after it claimed that the money was used to bribe its officials.

    The EFCC, in a fresh application filed yesterday by its counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), said the Federal Government was interested in raising a fresh objection against the claimant.

    In the application, the EFCC is claiming that Delta Government spent money returned to it on a N50 million building grant in 2008.

    It said it had stumbled on an evidence, which showed that part of the money was sent to former Governor James Ibori in London when on trial for money laundering charges in 2010.

    The commission said the $15 million was received by its officers from an undisclosed agent of Ibori in 2007 as a bribe to compromise their investigation.

    “The EFCC deposited the cash into the strong room number one of the CBN on April 26, 2007.”

    The commission also said Ibori denied ever giving the money to either the anti-graft body or any of its officers, adding that the money was a product of corruption.

    EFCC said the money remained unclaimed since April 2007 to date and had remained dormant in the strong room of the bank.

    The commission, therefore, urged the court to refuse the claimant’s prayer for the money to be returned to it.

    Counsel to Delta Government, Mr. Charles Ajuyah, said he needed time to prepare an argument against the new objection.

    Justice Gabriel Kolawole, therefore, gave Delta Government 14 days to react to the new counter-affidavit.

    He adjourned the case till January 10 for hearing of the application.