LAGOS- The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has accepted to dialogue with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the need for registrars to deposit the electronic registers of shareholders with the Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS).
Speaking at the 14th annual general meeting of the CSCS, Prof Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, said that the dialogue with SEC was to assist the market meet its Dec 31, 2008 deadline for dematerialisation of share certificates.
Share certificate dematerialisation is a concept floated about 11 years ago during the automation of market transactions, to capture all shareholdings electronically for easy trading.
Okereke-Onyiuke, who vowed that the CSCS would not extend the December deadline, urged all shareholders to consolidate their account.
“We are not going to extend the time frame for dematerialisation beyond Dec 31, 2008. CSCS has carried investors along for 11 years and it is our belief that all stakeholders now appreciate the contribution of dematerialisation to the growth of the Nigerian capital market,” she said.
She explained that the acceptance of the NSE to the use of electronic registrars stemmed from the bureaucracy and the large number of certificates sent to registrars from across the country.
Meanwhile, the CSCS has offered its shareholders 40k dividend and a bonus of four new shares for every one share already held.
The Chairman of the company said that the twin returns for shareholders in their 11 years of operation followed 380 per cent increase in CSCS profit after tax.
CSCS had in its operation in 2007 recorded N3.59 billon after tax profit when compared to N745.84 million achieved in 2006.
The company’s turnover in the year under review stood at N8.27 billion as against N2.24 billion recorded in 2006.
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