Today, September 7, 2026, MTN Nigeria is paying ₦26 on every share, straight to shareholders set up to receive it. If you own MTN shares and no alert came, you haven’t missed out. That money is probably waiting with MTN’s registrar, which is holding ₦1.67 billion in MTN dividends nobody has collected. MTN’s own notice says as much: if you never registered for e-dividends, or you’re owed older ones, regularise your account.

But how can you generally claim unclaimed dividends in Nigeria?

To claim unclaimed dividends in Nigeria, search your name on the SEC’s free Non-Mandated Dividends register, note the registrar shown beside each shareholding, and then file an e-dividend mandate with that registrar. Once approved, the registrar pays out every past dividend you’re owed, not just future ones.

New to dividends? Our dividends explainer covers what they are and how they reach you. This article is about how to claim unclaimed dividends, whether it’s yours or a relative’s, starting with why so much of it goes missing.

Why do so many dividends go unclaimed in Nigeria?

An unclaimed dividend is money a company declared for you but couldn’t pay, because the firm that keeps its share register and sends out payments (its registrar) has no live bank account to send it to. A lot of money sits this way: the SEC counts around ₦270 billion in unclaimed dividends and other dormant investor funds, and it is chasing the owners.

These dividends can go unpaid for a few ordinary reasons:

• No e-dividend mandate on file. Nigeria phased out paper dividend cheques (dividend warrants) from 2017, so payment is now electronic. If no form links your shares to a bank account, the money has nowhere to go.
• A name that doesn’t match. Record issues like maiden name on the register, married name on the account; or shares bought under initials, nicknames, or odd spellings (common in the indigenisation and 2004 to 2005 bank-recapitalisation years). Each mismatch stops the payment.
• A signature the registrar can’t match, or a company you lost track of after a rebrand. Like GTBank’s rebrand to GTCO and Access Bank to Access Holdings.
• A shareholder who moved or died without the family knowing the shares existed. That is where most of the trapped money sits. 

None of it disappears; it just waits with the registrar until someone claims it. So, how can you find it?

How do I check if I have unclaimed dividends?

You check a free public register the SEC runs to see if you have unclaime dividends. Simply go to the Non-Mandated Dividends search page, type in a name, and you’ll see a list of any shareholdings that don’t yet have a bank mandate attached.

You don’t need to log in or set up an account, and the entire process should take about two minutes.

Each result shows the account number, the shareholder’s name, the company, and the registrar (labelled “Operator”). It won’t show the amount, but a hit means an unclaimed shareholding exists, and the registrar will tell you what it’s worth once you ask.

Another thing: the best way to search is the way a records clerk would, not the way you’d Google yourself. If you suspect the problem is names that don’t match, try your surname alone, then your maiden name, your initials, common misspellings, and any nickname you once used.

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You can also run the same searches for your parents. 

However, the register only lists holdings without a mandate. For a full picture of everything someone owns, a licensed stockbroker can pull a clearing-system statement (a CSCS statement).

Take MTN. August 20, 2026 was the last day to buy and still collect it. Held the shares by then and got nothing? Check the register; its registrar is Coronation Registrars.

How do I claim my unclaimed dividends?

Once the register shows a holding, claiming it is the next step. All you need to do is file an e-dividend mandate, the form linking your shares to your bank account.

Here’s how to claim your unclaimed dividends if you’re a Nigerian investor:

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1. Note your registrar. Your search results show the Operator beside each holding. You file separately with each one.
2. Pick how you’ll file. You can use the NIBSS e-DMMS self-service portal (register by email, then add your shareholder account number, BVN, the registrar, and a valid ID, photo, and signature — perfect for several companies at once), contact your registrar directly (many now take it online), or visit your bank branch.
3. Pay the small fee. Registrar forms usually charge around ₦150 per company; the online portal shows its fee before you confirm, and a few registrars charge nothing. It is tiny next to what’s waiting.
4. Wait for approval. The registrar will check your details against your BVN and its own records. For example, Coronation says it pays within 1 to 4 business days after verifying a mandate, but others take longer.
5. Collect your arrears. Once your mandate clears, the registrar will release all past dividends it has held for you, not just the next one. So, years of payments can land at once.

Note that the name on the share register must match your bank account. If they differ (a maiden name, say), sort out a name change with the registrar first.

What if the shares belonged to a relative who has died?

This is where most of the money is hiding. As the SEC’s Director-General put it, for many families the death of a loved one who held shares “marks the beginning of a long and often confusing journey.” Picture a father who bought bank shares in 2005, with the certificates still in a folder.

You can recover these unclaimed dividends by following these steps:

1. Get the death certificate from the National Population Commission. Nothing moves without it.
2. Open an estate account early. The money is paid into a dedicated “Estate of [Name]” account. Opening one takes time, so start now.
3. Find out what they owned. Search every spelling of the name on the SEC register, and ask a licensed stockbroker for a full CSCS statement.
4. Get Letters of Administration (or probate, if there’s a will) from the State High Court’s probate registry. This is the slow, lawyer-necessary stage: months, plus court fees (in Lagos, estate duty runs about 10% of the estate’s value). However, the SEC now runs free probate clinics to help.
5. Take each registrar its transmission pack. You’ll need a death certificate, transmission request, IDs, and a banker’s confirmation. The actual documents will depend on the registrar, but they’ll move the shares into the estate’s name (a step called transmission) and charge a fee, often around 1% of their value.
6. File the estate’s mandate, and you’re back to the steps above.

One myth to drop: being “next of kin” doesn’t make you the heir on its own; you still need the court’s grant.

It can take the better part of a year, and fraudsters target grieving families, so deal only with the SEC and registrars. Unfortunately, two Nigerians learned the hard way: one lost a father’s money to a fake friend, another sold an inheritance without thinking.

Is it too late? Are old dividends gone?

The rule that a dividend “expires” after 12 years and returns to the company is dead. It belonged to the old companies law, and newer rules have replaced it.

The Finance Act 2020 says a dividend left unclaimed for six years moves into an Unclaimed Funds Trust Fund, where the Federal Government only holds it; you keep ownership and can claim any time.

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In June 2025, the SEC went further and ordered companies and registrars to “continue to honour all requests by shareholders for the payment of unclaimed dividends,” however old. That Trust Fund isn’t running yet, so you still claim through the registrar.

If anyone calls your dividend “statute-barred” or tries to deny you your money, quote the June 2025 circular and take it to the SEC.

What should you do with the money once it lands?

A pile of back-dividends landing at once is a small windfall, and windfalls vanish fast in an everyday account. If it’s a real lump sum, move it somewhere you can’t touch on impulse: that’s what SafeLock is for.

No emergency fund yet? Six in ten Nigerians don’t have one, so start there; Flex Naira is a good home for it, and building an emergency fund covers the rest. Going forward, alongside any shares you hold, Investify pays straight into your wallet: no mandate form, no registrar, no waiting.

Found nothing on the register? Treat this as a nudge to start building anyway. Piggyvest Flex Naira is a fine place to begin.

Conclusion

For your own shares, the path is short: search the register, note the registrar, file the mandate, collect your arrears. For a parent’s it’s longer (death certificate, letters of administration, transmission), but it ends the same way, with money back in the family’s hands. None of it is ever truly lost.

So run the search today: for yourself, then for the people whose paperwork will one day be yours. New to how dividends work? Start with the basics of dividends and start building wealth with Piggyvest.