I have paper share certificates. Can they be moved?

Yes, but they are converted to electronic form first (dematerialised) through a broker and the registrar. After that they sit in your CSCS account like any other holding.

Do I keep ownership while the shares are moved?

Yes. Moving shares between brokers changes who can act on them for you, not who owns them. They stay registered in your name throughout.

Can I add to shares I already own?

Yes. Once a holding is in your Shares Saver account you can buy more of it, once or every month, for ₦1,500 plus 0.4% of each purchase.

The shareholder has died. Can Shares Saver help?

Yes. Shares Saver searches for a deceased shareholder's shares and handles the transmission to the beneficiary, and the shares can go into a new Shares Saver account in the beneficiary's name. The search costs ₦10,000, paid upfront. To start, the administrator, executor or next of kin needs letters of administration or probate, or at least a death certificate. Shares Saver does not obtain probate or letters of administration and does not give legal advice.

For existing shareholders

Already own Nigerian shares?

Q: How do I move my shares into Shares Saver?

It starts with a Find My Shares search across the registrars for holdings in your name. We then send you the transfer forms that the places holding your shares require, you fill them in, and we submit them on your behalf.

Statements, paper certificates, shares spread across brokers, bonus shares and selling: the guides for managing what you already hold, and how to bring it into one account.

Start a Find My Shares search How Shares Saver works

Know what you own

Your CSCS statement is the independent record of every electronic holding in your name.

Bring it together

Shares spread across old brokers, apps and paper certificates can be moved into one account.

Buy, hold or sell

Once your shares are with Shares Saver, add to them, hold them or sell them in one place.

Check your records

Where your shares sit, and how to read the statements that prove it.

Your registrar

Guides to the registrars that keep most Nigerian share registers: who they are and what to prepare.

Paper share certificates

Certificates from older public offers must be converted to electronic form before they can be sold.

Shares in banks that no longer exist

Mergers, rescues and closures since 2005, and what each meant for the shareholders.

Shares with more than one broker

Holdings under several brokers or old apps can be moved and consolidated into one account.

Bonus shares, rights issues and dividends

What a company can offer or pay you as a shareholder of record.

From abroad, and larger holdings

Managing Nigerian shares from another country, the tax at home, and holding at size.

Inherited shares

When the shareholder has died: transmission to the beneficiary, and an estate search that finds the shares and handles it.

Selling

How a sale works, what it costs, and when the money arrives.

How to sell shares in Nigeria

Shares You Have Lost Track Of

Old certificates, registrar-held shares and holdings under a company's former name are covered in our unclaimed shares in Nigeria guide, including what happened after mergers and bank closures.

Moving your shares into Shares Saver

Shares Saver can sell shares bought through it, or moved into your Shares Saver account. To move shares held elsewhere, it starts with a Find My Shares search across the registrars for holdings in your name. We then send you the transfer forms that the places holding your shares require, you fill them in, and we submit them on your behalf. The shares stay registered in your name throughout. See how your shares are held.

What Shares Saver doesCollects contributions, instructs brokers, tracks your holdings, produces your documents

What the regulated broker doesPlaces the order on the NGX, settles the trade, files the transfer with the registrar

What nobody doesTell you which shares to buy. We are not investment advisers and we don’t take a view

Read further

Questions

Questions answered

Only once they have been moved into your Shares Saver account. Shares Saver can sell shares bought through it or moved into it, not shares held with another broker or on paper certificates.

Educational information only — not investment, legal or tax advice. Share values can fall as well as rise. All securities transactions are carried out through SEC-regulated stockbrokers.