NGX says positioned to widen retail investors participation in capital market

Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) has assured the public of its capabilities to widen retail investors’ participation in the Nigerian capital market with a wide range of investment products.

Jude Chiemeka, acting Chief Executive Officer of NGX said the Exchange is poised to support the capital market masterplan in attracting 5 million retail investors by 2025, noting that NGX has different products tailored to different investment strategies.

Chiemeka said during a television interview that NGX as a multi-asset Exchange possesses different asset classes and instruments that investors can take advantage of, whilst noting that aside from equities, investors need to be aware of other investment opportunities at the Exchange.

“There are certain returns in the market that many of them are not aware of and I think that is part of what Investors’ education/financial literacy would do for retail investors. Last year, the market posted a 45.9 percent average return on the All-Share Index but there were other products.

“NGX is a multi-asset Exchange with other listed products aside from equities. Our Exchange Traded Funds, for instance: the NGX30 ETF returned over 100 percent. But investors need to be aware of these kinds of products. If you think about mutual funds, the Exchange has over 20 mutual funds listed which help investors diversify their portfolio, some of which returned as high as 130 percent. Investors need to know the market in order to take full advantage of it,” he said.

Speaking on how NGX is attracting the younger generation of investors, Chiemeka explained that the Exchange is creating products that resonate with the Millennials and GenZs.

“To crowd them into the market, you have to create products that resonate with them. Digital assets, tokenization of assets, Nigerian depository receipts are among the products we are creating for them. NDRs are dollar receipts in which you can use naira to gain exposure to dollar investments offshore to mitigate FX volatility.” he said.

Chiemeka therefore noted that financial literacy/investors education is key in attracting more investors into the market, whilst noting that NGX has invested heavily in technology to deepen the market. He explained further that there are different channels investors could use to connect with the Exchange seamlessly.

“We have our website which is really interactive and functional. We have the USSD code *5474, this gives lots of market data/ market information that will allow you to take advantage of many opportunities that the market portends.”

He also noted that the Exchange has gone into partnerships to broaden participation in the capital market and to attract investment opportunities beyond Nigeria.

“We are part of the African Exchange Linkage projects, which is an integration of African Markets. It is a seamless backbone that is built and sponsored by African Development Bank. It allows investors to trade seamlessly across Africa.”