How to Read Your CSCS Statement: Every Field Explained for Nigerian Investors

A CSCS statement, often headed a statement of stock position, is a list of every security registered to your Clearing House Number (CHN) at the Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS), the depository for the Nigerian capital market. It shows who you are, which stockbroker each holding sits with, the companies you hold and how many units of each. It is the closest thing to a single record of what you own on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX).

The Header Fields on the Statement

• Investor name: your name as CSCS holds it, which needs to match your identity documents and the name on your broker account. A spelling difference here is the most common cause of trouble when claiming dividends or transferring shares.
• CHN (Clearing House Number): the unique number that identifies you across the whole Nigerian capital market. You have one CHN however many brokers you use. CSCS describes it as the number that identifies each investor in the market.
• CSCS account number: the account through which a particular stockbroker holds your shares. An investor who has used more than one broker can have more than one CSCS account under the same CHN, and a statement may list them separately.
• Stockbroker: the SEC-registered dealing member that operates the account. Shares can only be sold through the broker whose account they sit in, so this field tells you who to instruct.
• Statement date: the date the position was taken. Trades executed after this date, or executed before it but not yet settled, do not appear.

The Fields Against Each Holding

• Security or stock name: the listed company or fund, usually with its NGX symbol.
• Units or quantity: the number of shares registered to you in that security through that broker. This is the figure to compare with your own records.
• Price: where shown, the closing price on the statement date, taken from the NGX daily official list.
• Market value: units multiplied by that price. It is a snapshot for the statement date and changes every trading day.
• Transaction or last movement date: on some statements, the date the units last changed.
• Status or holding type: some statements distinguish freely tradable units from units that are restricted, for example shares under a lien to a lender, under a lock-in following a placement, or subject to a caution from a court or regulator. Restricted units cannot be sold until the restriction is lifted.

How to Get a Statement

CSCS offers several channels. Registered investors can view their positions through the CSCS investor portal and mobile app, and CSCS launched a USSD service that lets an investor retrieve their CHN, view stock positions and check the status of their direct cash settlement mandate from a basic phone. Your stockbroker can also generate a statement for the account it operates, and CSCS will produce one on request at its offices with valid identification. Some brokers issue periodic statements free and charge a small fee for extra copies; the practice varies by broker. A separate article on this site walks through downloading a statement step by step.

Reconciling It With Your Contract Notes

A contract note records one trade; the statement records the resulting position. Reconciling the two confirms that everything you bought settled into your account and nothing settled that you did not instruct.

1. Gather every contract note for a security since the last statement you reconciled, or since you first bought it.
2. Add the units on the buy notes and subtract the units on the sell notes. Adjust for any corporate action in the period, such as a bonus issue, split or reconstruction, using the ratio the company announced.
3. Compare the result with the units shown on the statement for that security and that broker. They match once every trade has settled, which under T+1 means one business day after the trade date.
4. Check that the CHN and broker on each contract note match the statement. A trade settled to a different CHN or a different broker account will not appear where you expect it.
5. Note any holding on the statement that you have no contract note for. It may be a bonus issue, an inherited or transferred holding, or shares moved from another broker, but there is always a reason for it.

What to Do About a Difference

If the units do not match, the first call is to the stockbroker named on the statement, with the contract notes in hand and the trade reference numbers to quote. Common explanations are a trade that has not yet settled, a partial fill that produced a second contract note, a corporate action you had not accounted for, or a trade settled to another of your CSCS accounts. If the broker cannot resolve it, CSCS has an investor services function, and SEC and NGX both handle complaints against dealing members.

What the Statement Will Not Show

Shares held for you by a platform in a nominee or pooled arrangement are registered to the platform's broker, not to your CHN, so they do not appear on your statement. Holdings in paper certificates that have never been dematerialised are on the company's register with the registrar but not at CSCS. If you expected to see a holding and it is absent, the question to ask the platform or registrar is where the shares are registered and under whose name.

Reading a CSCS Statement: FAQs

Why does my statement show the same company twice?

Usually because you hold the company through two different stockbrokers, each with its own CSCS account under your CHN. Some statements also separate free units from restricted units in the same company. Check the broker and status fields on each line.

My market value is different from my app. Which is right?

Both can be right for their dates. The statement values holdings at the closing price on the statement date; an app may use a later price. Compare the units rather than the value when checking that the records agree.

Can I sell shares that show on my statement under a broker I no longer use?

Not through your current broker until they are moved. Shares are sold through the broker whose account holds them. You can instruct a transfer to your current broker's account under the same CHN, after which they can be sold. A separate article on this site explains the transfer process.

Is a CSCS statement proof of ownership?

It is CSCS's record of the securities registered to your CHN and is widely accepted as evidence of a holding by registrars, banks and estate administrators. The company's register, maintained by its registrar, is the legal register of members; for listed shares the two are kept in step through CSCS.