MTN Nigeria gets approval to issue dividends as shares to 5,192 shareholders

MTN Nigeria has announced that it has obtained the approval of the SEC for the registration of the ordinary shares to allow the company to issue dividends as shares to 5,192 shareholders.

MTN Nigeria has announced that it has obtained the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission for the registration of the ordinary shares to allow the company to issue dividends as shares to 5,192 shareholders.

The company disclosed this via an official statement signed by Company Secretary, Uto Ukpanah which was sent to Nigeria Exchange Limited.

The statement reads:

MTN Nigeria Communications Plc (MTN Nigeria) is pleased to announce that it has obtained the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission for the registration of the ordinary shares issued under the recently established scrip dividend election plan (the “Plan”).
Under the Plan, 5,192 shareholders elected to receive their FY 2022 final dividends in the form of shares, equivalent to 641,047,053 new ordinary shares of 2kobo each at N232.68 per share. This brings the total issued shares of the Company to 20,995,560,103.
In line with the regulatory guidelines, the Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) accounts of qualified shareholders will be credited in the coming days.

What a ‘Scrip Dividend Plan’ means.

A scrip dividend is a method through which a company allows its shareholders to receive dividends in the form of additional shares, rather than cash payments.

The “election” aspect means that shareholders could choose whether they wanted to receive their dividends in the form of cash or additional shares.