Dangote Cement Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and 15 other listed companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) will be paying a total of N647.916 billion as final dividend to their shareholders for the financial year ended 2019.
Dividend is a token reward paid to the shareholders for their investment in a company’s equity, and it usually originates from the company’s net profits and it has also remained one of the key factors that traditionally drive market activities and aids investment decisions towards stocks across the globe, and Nigerian bourse is not an exception.
As companies continued to release their audited results on the NSE, the 17 companies have so far set to reward their shareholders, while investors still hopeful of others to release their audited with impressive dividend payout.
Quoted companies listed on the floor of the NSE are expected to the file their audited financial statement after 90 days at the end of every financial calendar. For the companies with the year ended December 31, have March 31 to fill in their audited results on the NSE.
According to the latest data obtained from the NSE, Dangote Cement paid the highest total dividend of N272.656 billion, translating N16 per share. MTN Nigeria declared a total dividend of N101.16 billion, while Zenith Bank to pay N78.49 billion.
Guaranty Trust Bank proposed a total dividend of N73.578 billion, Nestle Nigeria to pay N35.67 billion, while United Bank for Africa (UBA) declared N27.36 billion.
Others are Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Access Bank, Nigerian Breweries, Julius Berger, United Capital, Custodian Investment, Africa Prudential, Transcorp Hotel, Vitafoam Nigeria, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) and Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank to pay shareholders final dividends of N21.01 billion, N14.218 billion, N12.075 billion, N3.63 billion, N3 billion, N2.059 billion, N1.4 billion, N532 million, N525.42 million, N406.48 million and N145.95 million, respectively.
Market operators commended quoted companies for the dividend declared so far despite the harsh operating environment.
The chief executive officer of Sofunix Investment and Communications Limited, Sola Oni said that dividend policy is the principle that governs the quantum of earnings that a company distribute to investors as part of the return on investment, saying that the policy also defines the frequency of payment.
According to Oni, the common types of dividend policies are regular dividend policy, constant, and irregular policy. Whichever policy to be adopted can be influenced by factors such as the company’s net profit, availability of cash, shareholders’ expectation and the norm in the operating industry among others.
He noted many of the quoted companies that have announced dividend exhibited resilience, saying that for instance, in the banking sector, Zenith Bank’s N2.50 dividend amounted to 10 percent yield and it is followed by UBA Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank, stating that the operating environment is tough, hence, such companies should be commended. In the manufacturing sector, some companies have also announced good dividend.
The chief operating officer of InvestData Consulting Limited, Ambrose Omordion said that the dividend yield on the NSE has in recent times continued to increase as a result of the persistent free-fall in equity prices, owing to a bouquet of factors. The ravaging Coronavirus, a global pandemic, has further propelled the panic sell offs in the local and international markets, saying that the dividend declared so far are impressive.
