Business
Nigerian financial markets post healthy gains, but local investors still wary
“The IFC also approached the Securities and Exchange Commission for a naira-dominated medium-term notes program of US$1 billion,” Alogba said.
A US$1.5 billion African Development Bank facility for projects by South African telecoms firm MTN was also driving the market, he added.
However, despite the more optimistic outlook – including for the Nigerian economy as a whole – Nigerians remained wary of sinking their cash into equities. “Local investors cannot forget in a hurry irrational manipulation of share prices which stockbrokerage firms, in connivance with banks, engaged in to cause the market crash,” said one stocks analyst.
Would Rather Forget
Lagos businessman Soji Fadairo would rather forget what happened 5 years ago.
“Each time I tried not to remember, my memory keeps recalling how I lost my entire savings to stock market crisis,” he recalled. “Overnight, my entire investment running to several millions of naira evaporated like air.”
Fadairo’s experience forced him to sell property in the upscale Ikeja neighborhood of Nigeria’s financial hub to offset a 5 million naira (US$31,000) bank loan.
