A CFD account is not a shareholding

A dividend paid to the register, beside a cash adjustment on a price contract

When you hold shares through a local broker and a CSCS account, your name is on the company's register. A dividend is paid by the company to the registrar, who pays you by bank transfer if you have lodged an e-dividend mandate. The amount is the declared dividend per share, before withholding tax, and the qualification date decides whether you are on the register for that payment.

When you hold a CFD on a share, you do not hold the share and your name is on no register. If the broker offers a dividend adjustment on that CFD, it is a cash adjustment made by the broker around the ex-dividend date under its own contract terms. It is not a dividend paid by the company, and its size and tax treatment are set by the broker's terms, which this site does not state. Read the contract specification before relying on it.

Why a contract has no registrar, no mandate and no qualification date

A share CFD is a contract between you and the broker on the price of the share. There is no registrar, no shareholder register, and no e-dividend mandate to complete. The broker does not pass your name to the company, and you have no vote and no shareholder rights. Any dividend adjustment is a debit or credit on your account, calculated by the broker's formula, not the company's declared dividend.

Because the contract is between you and the broker, the broker's terms decide when an adjustment is made and whether it is positive or negative. The qualification date and closure of the register, which are central to a real shareholding, do not apply to a CFD. If you want the dividend paid by the company, you need to hold the share itself through a local broker and a CSCS account.

What to read in the terms before an account is opened from Nigeria

Before opening a CFD account, read the broker's contract specification for the share or index you intend to trade. Look for the section on dividend adjustments: how the adjustment is calculated, when it is applied, and whether it is subject to any withholding or fee. Do not assume that a dividend adjustment on a CFD will match the dividend you would receive as a shareholder; often it does not.

Also read the broker's terms on leverage, margin, and negative balance protection. A CFD is a leveraged product and losses can be fast; FxPro states that clients cannot lose more than the funds they deposited, but that does not reduce the risk of losing the entire deposit. Opening an account requires identity verification, and the platforms offered are MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, a browser platform and a mobile app. FxPro is not supervised by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria; a Nigerian resident who opens an account deals with a foreign firm outside local supervision, and a CFD on a share is not recorded in a CSCS account and does not appear in your CSCS statement.

FxPro is not licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria. An account is opened with a company regulated outside Nigeria - the group's companies are authorised by regulators such as the FCA in the United Kingdom - so a resident here deals with a foreign firm and the protections of a locally registered one do not apply. A contract for difference on a share is not ownership of a share and is not recorded in a CSCS account. Sending money abroad is subject to the Central Bank of Nigeria's foreign exchange rules. Nothing on this site is investment advice.