By Dipo Olowookere
Shareholders of Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) have approved the payment of N3.5 billion proposed by the board of the firm. This dividend payment amounts to 70 kobo per share for the 2017 business year.
The approval was given at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of CSCS Plc held on Monday, May 28, 2018 in Lagos.
During the meeting, the shareholders commended the board and management of CSCS for rewarding them. They charged them to continue to do more.
However, the shareholders expressed worry that the funding of the Investment and Securities Tribunal (IST) was not equally shared among stakeholders in the capital market.
They noted funding of the tribunal should be spread to all the value chains in the market, pointing out the present arrangement was weighing on the trio of CSCS, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Responding, Chairman of CSCS, Mr Oscar Onyema, agreed with the shareholders, saying everyone in the capital market should fund the tribunal since it was for all stakeholders.
Speaking on what the company plans to achieve in the future, Mr Onyema said the CSCS hopes to improve its services.
“We have unveiled our strategic business plan for 2018 to 2020 period. The strategic objectives and initiatives in the plan are anchored on the following pillars, process optimization, customers’ satisfaction, and technology improvement to deliver corporate goals, partnerships through strategic alliance across businesses and stakeholders, revenue growth. We have started leading initiatives to deliver on some of these pillars,” he said.
According to him, “We anticipate that our revenues shall continue to grow, and we shall continually keep our promise of decent return on investments for our shareholders.”
Also speaking at the AGM, the chief executive of CSCS, Mr Haruna Jalo Waziri, assured shareholders that, “We trust that as we continue to deliver value to our participants and stakeholders, our market dominance shall remain unchangeable.”
He said the company has developed a pipeline of new products in response to market need and will also reassess traditional products and services to ensure that its pricing model is smart, as well as guarantees the companies competitiveness.
CSCS Plc was incorporated on July 29, 1992 as a Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI) for the Nigerian Capital Market. It was commissioned in April, 1997 and commenced operations in April 14, 1997. On May 16, 2012, it became a Public Liability Company (PLC) by a special resolution.
The firm facilitates the delivery (transfer of securities from seller to buyer) and settlement (payment of bought shares) of securities transacted on the approved Nigerian Exchanges. It enables securities to be processed in an electronic book-entry form thereby substantially reducing the period it takes a transaction to commence and end.
Parts of its main functions include central depository for share certificates of companies quoted on The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); sub-registry for all quoted securities (in conjunction with registrars of quoted companies); issuer of central securities identification numbers to shareholders; and custodian (in conjunction with custodian member(s) for local and foreign instruments.
Adedapo Adesanya