The recent dividend payout from MTN Nigeria has spurred excitement in those who bought the last offer and triggered the interest of more Nigerian youths in the stock market.
Karl Toriola, CEO MTNN in a recent event revealed that of the retail applicants who successfully applied for MTN Nigeria shares using the digital platform, 76 percent were women and 85 percent were under the age of 40 — youths.
The offer created 114, 938 new CSCS accounts indicating fresh attention to the capital market.
A lot of youth shared their experience from the dividend pay.
“I bought a little over 1,000 MTN shares in December and just randomly checked to see the portfolio grow by N50,000,” Fisayo Fosudo, 27 year old popular visual storyteller tweeted.
@Victorsage_ also expressed his excitement on his gains from the compounding interest of his MTNN shares.
“Same here. I was so happy to see 2000 on top of what I originally bought.”
He further explained the tricks of compounding interest, “if you bought shares of 10 million you should have at least 12 million by now, wow.”
Comments immediately followed @Fisayofosudo’s tweet on his gains from MTNN shares, asking how to buy shares? People were interested in what apps they could also use to access the market.
Phrancis Dike, one of the many commentator asked “please I will like to know more on how I can buy some shares.Thanks”.
Read also: MTN Nigeria’s Q1 PBT up 39.4% to N143.6bn
Praise Olatide, a 20 year old student shared with BusinessDay that she would love to buy more shares as she recently got dividends of N700 from her investments in MTN.
“How can I invest more in shares, as I was recently paid my dividends”.
Although a lot of people expressed their interest in the stock market, a few expressed their concerns towards it.
Some of their concerns were inherited fear from their parents’ history with the stock markets, especially those that invested pre 2007-2008 stock market crash. The stock market was seriously hit by the crisis.
“The prices of shares in the market nose-dived and investors lost a huge sum of money,” a 2015 CBN report on the impact of the 2007-2008 stock market rush revealed.
“But those of us who bought tens of thousands of units of shares from FBN, Wema, Skyebank, since 2006, our portfolio grew by minus 200 percent.” a commentator said.
Rasaq Salau, Senior Financial Analyst Meristem, revealed that having investor education to educate people on the stock market would be necessary to positively harness the interest.
“A lot of young people know next to nothing about the stock market aside from the 2007-2008 crash they heard from their parents and make conclusions of that,” Salau added.
He suggested that the investor education can be championed by NGX and stockbroking firms.
“For individual companies listed on the exchange, trading is dependent on the availability of quality information. It pays if companies can improve on their information supply and also their corporate governance so investors can be at peace with their investments in the company,” he said.
He said capital market regulators must undertake swift reforms, which would restore public confidence and protect investors.
He pointed out that another major concern was if these stocks’ appreciation keeps up with inflation and currency devaluation. The need to hedge against inflation was highlighted.
The financial analyst mentioned that Youths need to know that the Equity market is not a get rich quick scheme and that the equity market is a market that easily fluctuates with respect to the Economic situations so they should think more long term.
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
