Shareholders ask FG to investigate SEC over fees
vanguardngr.com
By Peter Egwuatu
Friday, June 25, 2004
Shareholders have called on the Federal Government to investigate the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the fees it collects from both the primary and secondary transactions at the capital market, saying they see no reason why the Commission should be seeking subvention from the government.
The Chairman of the Association for Advancement and Rights of Nigerian Shareholders (AARNS), Dr. Faruk Umar while briefing newsmen in Lagos on Wednesday, disclosed that the association is disturbed on why the SEC is crying for lack of fund when it collects huge sums as fees for any transactions at the seconday market.
According to him “ we shareholders are disturbed at the huge fees charged by the Commission. Therefore, why should the SEC cry for inadequate funds when it does not render accounts to the government for the money it makes from capital market activities. Infact the Commission should be investigated and be made to render acccounts if it must be funded by the government. SEC is a government agency and is not supposed to make profit but to create an enabling environment and provide infrastructural facilities that would further develop the market”
Umar, emphasized that if SEC wants to be run as a private entity then it should be privatised “ Government has no business being in business. We shareholders have suffered a lot in the hands of the Commission and should be allowed to reap the dividend of our investments” he added.
According to him “ one area President Olusegun Obasanjo has succeeded is in privatisation. Why is the government privatising these government agencies, it is because they are not performing well. So since SEC is not performing its functions effectively it should be privatised. SEC should be made to publish its balance sheet because it charges fees for all capital market activities.”
He noted that SEC is not performing its traditional role of regulating and monitoring the market, stressing that the recent indictment of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and Nigerian Breweries was uncalled for . According to him “ as long as we shareholders are getting our returns in terms of dividend bonuses and share price appreciation, any amount spent by the company to further boost the business is immaterial. The fact behind the figure is a forum for operators and not shareholders. It is designed to make qouted companies to explain to stockbrokers and other stakeholders their performances during the year under review. These are not the things that the Commission should bother itself, it should be more concerned in things that will develop the market”. Speaking on unclaimed dividends, he said that the Commission should fashion a way of reducing or eliminating them , rather than clamouring for the establishment of Unclaimed Dividend Trust Fund (UDTF).
Collaborating, the Vice Chairman of AARNS, Otunba Olatunde Olowu said that the Commission has no business with unclaimed dividends, noting that the money belongs to shareholders. In his words “ SEC should be thinking of how to reduce unclaimed dividends, while companies be allowed to plough back any dividend unclaimed to the business for the usefulness of other shareholders and to the economy in general”.
He kicked against the seting up of UDTF saying the compositions of the Board does not reflect the wishes of shareholders. |
