Share certificates to be phased out December 2008
September 17th, 2007 Ogbuotobo Chuks || chuks@stockmarketnigeria.comBy Ogbuotobo Chuks
Investors in Nigeria would soon be relieved of the time wasted in the release and verification of share certificates, which seems to be the norm in the country. It is no news here that release of certificates by company registras after public or rights offers take as long as six month to a year in some cases.
Following the difficulties in the delivery of share certificates to investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has given December 31st, 2008 as the deadline for the total phase out of the issuance of share certificates to the investing public.
This was the resolve at a meeting between regulatory bodies of the capital market recently. It was said that the issuance of hard copies would be replaced with the electronic system, which would be handled by the CSCS. Shareholders were advised to begin the demobilisation of the share certificates into the CSCS system before the end of the deadline.
All Initial Public Offers (IPO), Rights issues and bonus certificates are to be issued electronically to CSCS accounts of subscribers. This means that prospective investors should approach brokers, so that CSCS accounts would be opened for them for future purposes.
The regulators and operators agreed that the CBN capital verification for banks will be done after the conclusion of the allotment process and that only suspicious accounts will be affected by the verification while the CSCS account of those not affected will be credited with the units allotted within 15 working days from the date of allotment clearance from SEC.







