Dangote Begs Shareholders To Come For N4bn Unclaimed Dividend

Dangote Cement is begging its shareholders to lay claims on the company’s unclaimed dividend which rose to N4bn by the end of 2020.

Nigeria’s most capitalised company made the call in its 2020 financial report seen by THEWHISTLER.

Dangote on Tuesday declared a dividend of N16 ordinary 50 kobo share, a development which triggered a N4 jump of its share price to N224 per share in less than 24 hours.

The government has a new policy of borrowing dividend which has remained unclaimed for six years.

With the Finance Act 2020, any unutilised amount in a dormant bank account maintained in or by a deposit money bank would also be borrowed.

The funds will be managed by the Debt Management Office through the Unclaimed Dividend Trust Fund , the government said.

In 2020 alone, the cement manufacturer said its unclaimed dividend grew by N500m to N4bn.

This is an increase from the N3.5bn unclaimed dividend held in 2019.

Dangote Cement said, “The total amount of unclaimed dividends outstanding as at 31 December 2020 is N4bn (2019: N3.5 billion).

“The Company notes that some dividend warrants have either remained unclaimed, are yet to be presented for payment by shareholders, or have been returned to the Company for revalidation.”

With market capitalisation of N3.817trn, the country’s biggest cement maker witnessed a growth in profit after tax by 38 per cent  to N276.1bn, from 200.5bn in 2019.

Despite the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the manufacturer made a revenue of N1.3trn in 2020.

The Nigerian government received N97.24bn from the company as tax in 2020, Dangote revealed.