10 Firms’ Unclaimed Dividends Drop By 26% To N24.3bn In 12 Months

10 Nigerian companies have declared N24.3 billion in unclaimed dividends in 2025, about a 26 per cent drop from N32.65 billion reported in 2024.

The Companies are Nestle Nigeria, Dangote Cement, MTN Nigeria Communication (MTNN), UAC of Nigeria, BUA Cement, Lafarge Africa, AXA Mansard, Unilever Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries, Aradel Holdings and Seplat Energy.

In 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) directed all registrars to return unclaimed dividends held for 15 months or more to the paying companies.

However, the Finance Act 2020, which became effective on January 1, 2021, requires public limited liability companies quoted on the Exchange to transfer any unclaimed dividend that has remained unclaimed for a period of not less than six years to the Unclaimed Dividend Trust Fund.

Nestle Nigeria in its 2025 results and accounts for the full year ended December 31, 2025, declared N4.31 billion unclaimed dividend, nearly a 52 per cent drop from N8.97 billion posted in 2024.

According to Nestle Nigeria, in compliance with the provisions of the Finance Act 2020, the sum of N4.1billion unclaimed dividends that were outstanding for the period of six years but below 12 years as well as unclaimed dividends that are currently exceed six years has been transferred to our Registrars for remittance to Unclaimed Dividend Trust Fund of Debt Management Office (DMO) during the year 2025.

Dangote Cement declared N4 billion in unclaimed dividends, a 23.1 per cent drop from the N5.2 billion declared in 2024. Lafarge Africa came close with N3.21 billion in unclaimed dividends in 2025, about an 8.6 per cent increase from N2.95 billion in 2024, while Unilever Nigeria reported N3.2 billion in unclaimed dividends for shareholders in 2025, up from N286.26 million in 2024.

Nigerian Breweries declared N2.7 billion in unclaimed dividends in 2025, a 61 per cent drop from N6.9 billion in 2024. Seplat Energy saw its unclaimed dividend rise from N1.5 billion in 2024 to N2.4 billion in 2025, a 56.9 per cent increase.

MTN Nigeria announced N1.67 billion in unclaimed dividends in 2025, about a 172 per cent increase from N612.5 million in 2024. MTN Nigeria, in its 2025 financial year report, stated that no unclaimed dividends were returned by the Group during the year ended December 31, 2025.

UAC Nigeria stated in its 2025 results that it had N1.2 billion in unclaimed dividends, a 75 per cent drop from N4.8 billion in 2024. Aradel Holdings posted N979.42 million in unclaimed dividends in 2025, about a 79 per cent increase from N547 million in 2024, while BUA Cement reported N979.42 million in 2025, a decline of 23.28 per cent from N714.15 million in 2024.

AXA Mansard declared N94.8 billion in unclaimed dividends in 2025, a 32 per cent drop from N139.24 billion in 2024.

The immediate past president of the Institute of Capital Market Registrars (ICMR), Seyi Owoturo disclosed that Nigeria’s total unclaimed dividends are about N200 billion.

“When compared to national budgets or infrastructure projects running into trillions, that figure is relatively small. Over the past 12 years, unclaimed dividends represent about 3 to 3.5 per cent of total declared dividends, and that includes legacy companies like First Bank Holdings, Nestlé Nigeria, Cadbury Nigeria, and Unilever Nigeria.”