Claim your dormant account balances, unclaimed dividends - FG to Nigerians

Nigerians have been advised by the Fiscal Policy Reforms Committee to start the process of claiming unclaimed dividends and dormant account balances if they were not up to six years.

The announcement was made by Bode Oyetunde, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Finance and Fiscal Matters and Secretary of the committee, on Thursday, February 4.

Oyetunde gave the advice at the Finance Act 2020 Stakeholder Engagement webinar to share perspectives on the implications of the Finance Act 2020, for capital markets and the financial services sector.

The advise came following concerns raised by Nigerians on the provision, as decided by the government, to utilise unclaimed dividends and dormant account balances of up to six years, to mitigate Nigeria’s economic challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The funds realised are to be put in a trust fund to be managed by the Debt Management Office (DMO), according to provisions of the Act.

“If you have bank balances and unclaimed dividends that are not six years and above, this has no implication on you.

“If you have unclaimed dividends in a company, that is not a public limited one listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, you have no issue. If you do, you can start the process of taking back your unclaimed dividends and if it is a bank balance, go and get your bank balances.

“All these will be done in consultation with the bankers’ committee, CBN and the banks for the unclaimed bank balances and unclaimed dividends, registrars, Securities and Exchange Commission, other regulatory bodies,” Oyetunde said.

He assured that the process would be transparent, adding that the Federal Government had “Nigerians’ best interests at heart” in its efforts to deploy resources to deal with the challenges it faced.