Stockholders in the capital market have said that the equities market can deliver greater returns for young Nigerians than bitcoin and foreign exchange trading.
According to The Punch, this information was revealed at the “Deepening Financial Inclusion in the Retail Investor Ecosystem” NGX Regulation Retail Investor Workshop.
Speakers at the event made the point that youths may be deterred from accessing the Bitcoin and FX trading spaces by increased market expertise.
Managing Director of APT Securities, Garba Kurfi, stated during the webinar that Nestle was trading at N10 in 2000. Nestle is worth more than N1,000 now, and they give out a lot of interim and final dividends.
“Thus, you can assess how successfully you have hedged against inflation and other factors if you take a stock that was valued at N10 in 2000 and 23 years later, it is worth N1,000. This can be applied to a wide range of equities; for example, consider the rise in value of penny stocks like Chams, Japaul, and CWG.
“This demonstrates that investing in stocks is the best strategy to hedge your money. The younger generation, however, is not as familiar with this information. If they know this, they will not go into cryptocurrency even forex.”
In his presentation titled “The impact of unclaimed dividend on your investment portfolio,” Meristem Stockbrokers Limited’s managing director, Saheed Bashir, stated, “Data from the Securities and Exchange Commission reveals that unclaimed dividends in the Nigerian capital market increased by 20 percent from N158bn in 20219 to N190bn in 2023.”
“The market’s top regulator has implemented investor education programs and even committed resources to end the threat of unclaimed dividends.”
According to Bashir, it is crucial to claim dividends because it facilitates the investor’s cash flow management. Regular dividend payments from firms can contribute to the growth of your portfolio. “By not claiming your dividend, you are losing a significant amount of money.”
The Executive Director of Capital Markets at Nigerian Exchange Limited, Jude Chiemeka, stated in his welcoming speech that the expansion of the Nigerian economy depends on the push for financial inclusion.
He declared, “We think there is a ton of unrealized potential among this group of investors, so this is the third webinar in this year’s series hosted by the Nigerian Exchange group of companies and aimed at the retail mass market.” The topic of today’s webcast is financial inclusion.”
