TECHDIGEST – Tech Expert, John Obaro, the managing director of the African technology giant, SystemSpecs, has stated that the deployment of digital innovations, cross-industry collaborations and the right policies would solve the persistent challenge of unclaimed dividends in Nigeria’s capital market.

Speaking on “Solving the Unclaimed Dividend Conundrum: Exploring Digital Innovations”, John Obaro made this assertion at the 10th conference, investiture and Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Institute of Capital Market Registrars (ICMR) held recently in Lagos.

To meet the demands of investors, a large number of whom are young and uninterested in manual processes, Obaro said “the capital market needs to upgrade the speed and quality of its service delivery, deploy technology to activate and deepen remote investing, and facilitate self-service to make the industry more appealing to new entrants”.

Obaro said unclaimed dividend, which was valued at 170billion naira as at August 2021 and has been on the rise, “keeps accumulating partly because Registrars, who are responsible for keeping records of shareholders, cannot locate the rightful owner; the owners or their proxies cannot locate the paying agency; or the beneficiaries are aware but reluctant to activate collection,” he added.

Other factors include change of stakeholder’s address, change of name, unavailable bank account, incomplete and ineligible records, beneficiary’s death, strategic negligence, and fraud investments.

Nonetheless, he commended some of the efforts of the Nigerian capital market to re-invent itself. Obaro said the introduction of the electronic Dividend Payment Mandate System (e-DMMS), is “a major step in the right direction where dividends are paid to the specified bank account of the investor on the payable date.”

“However, new technology such as data analytics, cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence, and distributed ledger technology can be maximised to attract new and young investors, enhance efficiency, improve service delivery, as well as increase collaboration in the capital market ecosystem,” he added.

John Obaro added that it was important to eliminate any long and excruciating process that involves manual intervention.

SystemSpecs, one of the oldest, longstanding technology firms in Nigeria and a leading provider of financial and human capital technology solutions and services. Its products include Remita, a payment solution platform, and Human Manager, a human capital management solution.

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TECH DIGEST – As digital technologies revolutionise the globe, emerging economies like Nigeria are set to witness further disruptions occasioned by more innovative digital platforms transforming various aspects of life by leveraging data.
John Obaro, the managing director of SystemSpecs, a leading African financial and human capital technology solutions company, said this as he shared insights on “Platforms as a Driver for the Digital Economy,” at the recently concluded 2020 edition of the annual Digital PayExpo which was held virtually.

For about three decades, SystemSpecs, the owner of the Remita, Paylink and HumanManager brands, has been at the forefront of the emergence of digital economy in Nigeria.

According to Obaro, who was represented by an Executive Director of the firm, Deremi Atanda, said that the digital economy involves all economic processes, transactions and activities that are based on digital technologies.

“This modern trend is a result of billions of everyday online connections among people, businesses, devices, data and processes. It is underpinned by the spread of Information and Communication Technologies across the business sector to enhance productivity and efficiency,” Obaro said.

While analysing the evolution of the digital economy over the past three decades, the technology expert noted that data has grown exponentially but the world is still in the early days of the data-driven economy.

Availability of platforms have made it easy for interactions that drive technological innovation to occur, leading to more disruptions and rapid growth of enterprise across various sectors of the economy. Some of the key drivers for the advent and impact of platforms include innovation, expanding market, disruptive technology, and the rapid growth of aggregated data.

Furthermore, he listed some examples of indigenous innovative digital platforms, including IrokoTV, which gives access to online streaming of Nollywood movies; OkadaBooks, which has made books accessible to millions in sub-Saharan Africa through mobile technology; and Remita, a payment facilitator that processes over $6 billion worth of transactions monthly for integrators, businesses, governments, SMEs and individuals in Africa.
Obaro believes the digital economy will lead to more disruptions in emerging economies like Nigeria, as more innovative digital platforms are developed in healthcare, fashion, financial services and other industries.
Other speakers at the conference include the Minister of Communication and the Digital Economy, Dr. Ali Ibrahim Isa Pantami; Advisory Partner and Chief Economist at PwC, Dr. Andrew Nevin; Founder and General Partner of Future Africa (Nigeria) Iyin Aboyeji, among others.

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