THE Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe (SecZim) has taken over administration of unclaimed shares from the Investor Protection Fund (IPF), effective July
2025.
The purpose of the fund is to provide compensation to protected investors for losses suffered as a direct result of a licensed contributor to the fund being unable to meet their liabilities through insolvency, malpractice or other cause.
According to Statutory Instrument 83 of 2017, which sets out the rules of the fund, a protected investor is defined in three ways.
These are a holder of a security that is dealt with by a contributor, a person for whom a contributor holds a security, or a person who has a right, whether vested or contingent, to obtain a security from a participating firm.
According to SecZim, the unclaimed shares portfolio was valued at ZiG69,09 million and US$632 745,19 as of March.
“I might not have the number of claims (at) hand, but there has been a transition in as far as the unclaimed shares portfolio is concerned. It used to be administered through the Investor Protection Fund, and it recently moved, I think from July, to be under the administration of the Securities and Exchange Commission,” SecZim chief executive officer Anymore Taruvinga told NewsDay Business.
“It’s more of moving back the admin to SecZim as the unclaimed shares were created through a SecZim directive and SecZim had transferred the admin to the IPF, which is also a creation of SecZim.
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“IPF has no permanent secretariat and for continuity, it was prudent to house the unclaimed shares under SecZim, which has the mandate for investor protection.”
He said since moving these shares last month, not much information had been shared with the public, which is something the regulator was seeking to do by sharing information with citizens and investors.
“And we had to put in place the proper processes for it to run so we haven’t really made the sufficient public announcements to that effect,” Taruvinga said.
“We need to now tell the concerned citizens and potential investors of the new processes that are required for them to claim their shares.
“But it remains a sizeable pile, and our mandate is to ensure that everyone on that pile is reconciled with their wealth.”
These unclaimed assets are held by the Chengetedzai Depository Company Limited (CDC), as it operates a central securities depository for Zimbabwe’s securities industry.
During the first quarter, trades worth ZiG975,26 million were settled through the CDC and the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange Depository.
The bulk of these shares were purchased by nominee accounts (31,23%) and corporations (30,62%), with individual investors accounting for just 4,36%.
Against this backdrop, SecZim’s move to directly oversee unclaimed shares underscores efforts to tighten investor protection and improve oversight at a time when most market activity is dominated by institutional players.
In December 2024, SecZim revealed that it was mulling stiffer penalties to holders of the unclaimed shares.
