No fewer than 86 companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) are to receive bronze, silver, or gold awards in Lagos on Friday, December 12, at the 2014 maiden awards presentation ceremony of Dividend Payment Awards (DP-Awards), being organised by Bodmas Foundation.
A brief highlight of the list of the 2014 DP-Awards winners indicates that only UBA PLC and Vitafoam Nigeria PLC are in the gold award category for achieving dividend payments of 41 years and 36 years respectively to their shareholders.
More so, 14 companies are in the silver award category for achieving Dividend Payment years of between 20 years and 30 years to shareholders. The companies include Unilever Nigeria PLC (17 years); John Holt Nigeria PLC (26 years); Cadbury Nigeria PLC (33 years); Nigeria Breweries (21 years); Cutix PLC (25 years); University Press PLC (25years); Scoa PLC (28 years); FBN Holdings PLC (17 years); Glaxo Smithkline Consumer PLC (22 years), among others, and the bronze award winners comprised 70 companies that have achieved dividend payment years of between five years and 15 years to their shareholders as their available published annual reports show.
The Bronze Award-winning companies include Roads Nigeria PLC; Forte Oil PLC; Fidelity Bank PLC; Continental Reinsurance PLC; Nahco PLC; CCNN PLC; GT Bank PLC; Zenith Bank PLC; FCMB Group PLC; Dangote Cement PLC; Dangote Sugar Refinery PLC; Red Star Express PLC, etc.
‘‘The respective DP-Awards winning companies are by their awards, indicating to their shareholders, investors, regulators, and the public at large that they are premium companies that hold a great prospect for continuous wealth creation for their investors / shareholders, and the Nigerian economy at large. The listed companies have by their collectively impressive dividend payments to shareholders to date, added hundreds of billions of naira to the Nigerian economy and given a good account of themselves to justify their shareholder investments in the Nigerian capital market,’’ the organizer said
The Bodmas Foundation statement concluded that guests attending the 2014 DP-Awards Presentation Event shall be opportune to view the details of dividend payments by the DP-Awards’ winning companies, which it has compiled and used to select the 2014 winners among the over 200 companies and equities listed on the NSE.
‘‘The dividend payment details would therefore enlighten the Nigerian public, particularly the retail investors, to give more attention to the regular collection of their dividends as against their present prevalent lukewarm-ness that has seen the amount of unclaimed dividends rise to a staggering N60 billion naira, according to statements by the regulatory authorities.’’