The Securities and Exchange Commission has said it will engage the Central Bank of Nigeria to seek the inclusion of e-Dividend Mandate Management System fee in the guidelines of bank charges.

The acting Director-General, SEC, Ms Mary Uduk, said this at a press briefing in Lagos on Friday after a meeting of the Capital Market Committee.

She said the inclusion of the e-DMMS fee would facilitate the goal of reducing multiple accounts and unclaimed dividends.

According to her, over 2.7 million accounts have been mandated for e-Dividend while over 3.4 billion units of shares have been effectively regularised.

Uduk noted that SEC was working hard to ensure the reduction of e-Dividend in the capital market, describing it as an undesirable feature

She said the sub-committees of the CMC passed a resolution to invite the National Information Technology Department Agency to the next CMC meeting to make a presentation on data regulations and protection for investors.

Uduk said, “SEC is taking these steps to combat the issue of identity theft in the market.

“Other key initiatives embarked on include our partnership with the University of Lagos to promote capital market education and attract experts to the industry. We are also taking capital market education to primary and secondary schools so that we can capture these young ones.”

Uduk stated that SEC was working in partnership with the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council to inculcate capital market studies into the curriculum of schools.

She said the aim was to ensure that children grew up to understand the technicalities of the market.