Zenith leads as Banks’ unclaimed dividends hit N79bn

Zenith Bank has the highest unclaimed dividends as unclaimed dividends in the banking sector hit N79.57 billion in the period ending June 2023, rising by N7.13 billion within the first six months of the year.

This is based on Index analysis of financial statements of eight Nigerian deposit money banks (DMBs) for the first half (H1) of 2023.

The financial firms that account for the total unclaimed dividends include Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), Zenith Bank, First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Holdings, Ecobank, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Fidelity Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), and Stanbic IBTC.

Three banks — Sterling Financial Holdings Company, Wema Bank, and Unity Bank — did not record any unclaimed dividends within the review period.

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The Union Bank of Nigeria and Access Corporation are yet to release their financial statements for covering the first six months of the year.

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Further analysis showed that Zenith Bank has the highest unclaimed dividends, registering N29.65 billion at the end of Q2 2023.

This is a drop of N114 million from N29.76 billion posted at the end of last year.

FBN Holdings was next, reporting N14.62 billion as dividends yet to be claimed by shareholders. This is the same amount posted at the end of December 2022.

The figure is close to that of Ecobank, which has N14.37 billion in unclaimed dividends by the end of June 2023. Ecobank recorded the highest increase, posting N9.12 billion or 173.76 percent upswing compared to the N5.25 billion filed in December 2022.

UBA followed closely, after the company ended the period in review with N13.73 billion, rising by N1.10 billion within the first six months of 2023, relative to the N12.63 billion recorded at the end of 2022.

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Also, GTCO posted N4.08 billion as unclaimed dividends within the six-month period. The figure rose from N3.95 billion in the full year 2022 — indicating an increase of N134.10 million.

Similarly, FCMB’s unclaimed dividend was put at N2 billion at the period ending June, increasing by N304.56 million from N1.69 billion registered at the close of the preceding year.

Furthermore, Stanbic IBTC’s unclaimed dividends depreciated by 75.83 percent between January and June 2023 — dropping to N1.09 billion, from N4.51 billion documented at the end of the previous year.

In its H1 financial statement released this year, Fidelity Bank recorded the lowest unclaimed dividends of N6 million. The value increased by N5 million from N1 million reported at the end of 2022.