How to Claim Your Unclaimed Dividend in Nigeria

Have You Ever Bought Shares In Nigerian Companies in the past? Public offer (Primary) or Secondary Market? Then this is for you.

Several Nigerians participate in Public offers of Nigerian publicly listed companies without going further to register with stockbrokers. For instance, the last MTN public offer in 2022 had over 126,000 investors, according to MTN and Premium Times, but I would be surprised if up to half of such investors have done anything further after that investment. Similarly, GTCO recently did a public offer with not less than 130,000 domestic investors participating in it as reported by Guardian News.

If you have ever participated in buying shares of Nigerian companies, chances are that you might have unpaid dividends waiting for you to claim (Free bucks, yeah!). Whether it was through an Initial Public offer, Public offer or bought from the Secondary market, if the company had ever declared dividends after your purchase then you are likely eligible to be paid such dividends. This also applies even if the company is no longer existing. The SEC refers to you as "Unregistered Investors for e-dividend".

In case you have forgotten or are unsure if you have unclaimed dividends, you can start by checking on the SEC Website here: https://sec.gov.ng/non-mandated/

Cowryvest Unclaimed dividend illustration

Type in your full name in the search box and click "search". If you have unclaimed dividends your details would appear showing the companies whose shares you own, your shareholder account number with them, and their registrars.

Next step is to register with a Stockbroker. There are several of them, and you can check out some below:

StanbicIBTC StockBrokers: https://www.stanbicibtcstockbrokers.com/nigeriastockbroking/stockbroking

Investment One Stockbrokers: https://stockbrokers.investment-one.com/

CardinalStone Stockbrokers: https://cardinalstonesecurities.com/equities/

Your stockbrokers can then guide you on the next steps to reclaim your dividend. Once you become a registered investor with a CSCS Account, CHN Account and your bank account mandated for e-dividend then you would receive your unclaimed dividends, as well as subsequent dividends from the companies whose shares you own. Alternatively, if you are already registered with a Nigerian Stockbroker you can click on the Registrar of the company as listed in your details, which would lead you to the EDMMS Self service portal, then you can follow the prompts.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Investing! Feel free to drop your comments below.

Comments

Passive Investing Options- Money Market Fund

Do you have some idle funds sitting in your bank accounts or under your bed for several weeks or months? Are you saving up for a project in a few months and just piling it up in a bank account? That six months savings you have been told to set aside to serve as emergency fund in case of loss of your job or something else, do you have it lying idle somewhere? If your answer is positive then you might want to consider a Money Market Fund. A Money Market Fund is a type of mutual fund that invests in short-term, low-risk debt securities, aiming to provide investors with a relatively stable and liquid investment option. These funds are often seen as a cash-like alternative, offering higher returns than traditional savings accounts while maintaining a high degree of safety and accessibility". Note the words "liquid", "Safety" and "Accessibility". Essentially, Money market fund is a pool of funds run by Fund managers into which several investors invest thei...

Why is Access Holdings PLC Share price underperforming?

Investors have been curious as to why Access Holdings PLC stock price has been underperforming, both below their expectation and compared to peers on the NGX (Nigerian Stock Exchange). Time was when Access Holdings stock price used to range similarly with United Bank for Africa (UBA) PLC, but as at today the gap between both is more than ₦12. In fact, among the FUGAZ, Accesscorp is the least priced, with Fidelity bank's share price, which is a second tier bank almost catching up with it. This is on the back of their meticulously crafted 5-year strategies which they have religiously been executing in batches since at least 2018, lofty expansion drive across Africa, aggressive growth of their fintech subsidiary, speed of completion of the CBN's recapitalization exercise way ahead of deadline, and the massive revenue and strong balance sheet they have been reporting. At the 2025 Annual General Shareholders Meeting, shareholders raised the same concern about the share price underpe...

Julius Berger Annual General Meeting 2025: No virtual attendance?

The 55th Annual General Meeting of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc held on June 19, 2025 at Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Center, 1 Memorial Drive, FTC Abuja, facilitated by the company and their registrars, Greenwich Registrars and Data Solutions. Resolutions from the meeting have since been published and are available to shareholders on the NGX Website. However, it is surprising to notice that it appears like there was no provision for shareholders who could not make it all the way to Abuja to join in virtually to follow the conversation. Provision was only made for physical attendance and voting through proxies. Do publicly listed companies still do that in this day and age? If there was one good thing that the world benefited from the last COVID-19 pandemic, it would be the compulsion to have meetings virtually, which then got nicely blended into our way of life afterwards. Several apps were developed and 'rediscovered' to accommodate virtual meetings, and have continued to be in use since...

Search This Blog