In  a previous article we wrote about a Passive Investment option known as Money Market Funds, which you can check out here if you have not. In this article, we want to bring to light another passive investment option known as Commercial Papers. Of course, they are passive in that after making the investment you do not require any further activity or work for them to yield interest or dividends for you. Essentially, your money works for you. So we ask again like in our previous article, do you have some idle funds sitting in your bank accounts or under your bed for several weeks or months? Are you saving up for a project in a few months and just piling it up in a bank account? That six months savings you have been told to set aside to serve as emergency fund in case of loss of your job or something else, do you have it lying idle somewhere? If your answer is positive then you might want to consider Commercial Papers. What are Commercial Papers?  Commercial papers are...

On the 2nd and 3rd of July, 2025, GTCO, the parent company of Guaranty Trust Bank, announced that it is set to list its shares for trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) by 8am July 9, 2025, making it the first financial services institution in West Africa to achieve this feat. At a time when most Nigerian banks are struggling with the recent CBN Circular on Non Performing Loans and forbearance , GTCO once again proves that it is a trailblazer in the Financial sector by making this unprecedented move. This is not GTCO's first foray to the LSE, as it had previously listed its GDR (Global Depository Receipts) there since 2021 or so, which it is about to wind up though.  But what's in it for Shareholders and Investors? The group concurrently launched a public offer of new ordinary shares to raise $105 million on the London Stock Exchange between July 2 and July 30, through an Accelerated Book Build managed my Citigroup. According to BusinessDay news, "a n accelerated book...

The news of Alhaji Aminu Alhassan Dantata's death at the age of 94 hit the Nigerian news media on the 28th of June, 2025. Several condolence messages have since been extended from friends and well wishers to his large family, including Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Nigeria's foremost business man, whose uncle he was.  Aminu Dantata was what Nigerians would call "Old Money", a man who broke through as early as in the 1960s, at a very young age. Although he was from a wealthy lineage, it still takes a lot to not just sustain wealth but to grow it. Just like the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, during his lifetime Aminu Dantata could be regarded as the proverbial Oracle of Kano, a prominent northern Nigerian state, with a good number of business and political leaders and aspiring figures within and outside the country paying homage to him regularly and seeking his counsel. He was involved in several businesses spanning across Trading, construction, Real estate, manufacturing, ba...

In an interesting and surprising announcement, on the 1st of July, 2025 Japaul Gold and Ventures PLC appointed new board members at their 20th Annual General Meeting, and named one of them as Chairman to take over the reigns from the pioneer Chairman, now outgoing, Paul Jegede. The newly appointed Board members are Mr David Dawson, Engineer Francis Ekeng, and Mr Segun Oloketuyi, of which the latter was named as the new Chairman of the board. According to the announcement, " Japaul Gold & Ventures PLC is proud to announce a transformative phase in its corporate governance and strategic direction with the appointment of Mr Segun Oloketuyi as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors, alongside the onboarding of Mr Francis Ekeng as Non-Executive Director and the confirmation of Mr David Dawson as the new Managing Director. This development marks a pivotal moment in the Company's evolution, as it positions itself to capitalize on emerging opportunities in gold exploration, mi...

Have You Ever Bought Shares In Nigerian Companies in the past? Public offer (Primary) or Secondary Market? Then this is for you. Several Nigerians participate in Public offers of Nigerian publicly listed companies without going further to register with stockbrokers. For instance, the last MTN public offer in 2022 had over 126,000 investors, according to MTN  and Premium Times , but I would be surprised if up to half of such investors have done anything further after that investment. Similarly, GTCO recently did a public offer with not less than 130,000 domestic investors participating in it as reported by Guardian News .  If you have ever participated in buying shares of Nigerian companies, chances are that you might have unpaid dividends waiting for you to claim (Free bucks, yeah!). Whether it was through an Initial Public offer, Public offer or bought from the Secondary market, if the company had ever declared dividends after your purchase then you are likely eligible to be ...

Stock market participation in Africa remains extremely low. A report published in Nigeria by Nairametrics some months ago indicated that there were about 5 (five) million Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) accounts, of which only about 100,000 were active. That means that less than 2% of Nigerians have CSCS accounts at all, and only 0.05% of the population were active on the Nigerian Stock market. Of course the picture is similar across most African countries. The Stock market is where securities or stocks of Publicly listed Companies are traded every working day. In Nigeria, to participate in trading such stocks, the company has to be publicly listed on the Stock exchange and compliant with applicable regulations, participants have to register with a Stockbroker who will help them open CSCS accounts and assign a Clearing House Number (CHN) to them to have access to the Stock exchange trading floor . These days the registration process is very easy and could be done within 48 h...

Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc Opened Series 10–12 Commercial Paper Issuance Worth Up to ₦100 Billion- Closes on the 25th of June. Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc has commenced its Series 10–12 Commercial Paper (CP) issuance, aiming to raise up to ₦100 billion as part of its ₦300 billion Commercial Paper Issuance Programme. A subsidiary of Dangote Industries Limited, the company specializes in refining, distributing, and marketing granulated sugar to wholesalers and major clients across various sectors. The current offer, which opened recently, is expected to close on Wednesday, June 25, 2025.  With an installed refining capacity of 1.49 million metric tonnes annually, DSR remains the largest sugar refiner in Sub-Saharan Africa. The company has set its sights on producing an additional 1.5 million metric tonnes of refined sugar using domestically cultivated sugarcane, advancing its strategy to become a globally competitive, fully integrated sugar producer through backward integration. E...

Nigeria has a good number of citizens living and working abroad (in diaspora) and the number keeps increasing. Every day many individuals and families pray and look for every available means to travel abroad in search for greener pastures. Of course, with a population of over 200 million people and few opportunities being jostled for within the country, it is not out of place for people to have such desires to look outside the shores of the country in search of opportunities and better life. And for those that make it out, most of them never really forget home or their roots. They work tirelessly to succeed, and as they do they send back money to their relatives in Nigeria to support them, as well as amass investments in Nigeria mostly in form of real estate, perhaps with the hope of retiring back to their Fatherland in the future.  However, even though real estate is said to be 'real', a number of such hardworking Nigerians in diaspora trying to invest in Real estate back home...

 On the 13th of June, 2025, the Central Bank of Nigeria released a Letter to all Banks in Nigeria, directing all those that are "operating under approved regulatory forebearance regimes, specifically in relation to credit exposures and Single Obligor Limits"  to temporarily suspend dividend payments, Bonuses and investments in foreign subsidiaries. While the CBN's intention must have been noble, the weekend that followed was quite a long one for Bank shareholders and most likely would have had some of them develop hypertension. On the first trading day of the subsequent week the NGX banking sector went into panic mode, as the bank tickers were in the red, with some banks shedding almost the maximum allowable loss for the day. Before long, reports started to trickle in on the likelihood of GTCO and Stanbic IBTC Holdings being exempted from the sledge hammer, and their tickers started recovering. But shareholders and investors were still in the dark as to the fate of their ...

Do you have some idle funds sitting in your bank accounts or under your bed for several weeks or months? Are you saving up for a project in a few months and just piling it up in a bank account? That six months savings you have been told to set aside to serve as emergency fund in case of loss of your job or something else, do you have it lying idle somewhere? If your answer is positive then you might want to consider a Money Market Fund. A Money Market Fund is a type of mutual fund that invests in short-term, low-risk debt securities, aiming to provide investors with a relatively stable and liquid investment option. These funds are often seen as a cash-like alternative, offering higher returns than traditional savings accounts while maintaining a high degree of safety and accessibility". Note the words "liquid", "Safety" and "Accessibility".  Essentially, Money market fund is a pool of funds run by Fund managers into which several investors invest thei...

The 55th Annual General Meeting of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc held on June 19, 2025 at Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Center, 1 Memorial Drive, FTC Abuja, facilitated by the company and their registrars, Greenwich Registrars and Data Solutions. Resolutions from the meeting have since been published and are available to shareholders on the NGX Website. However, it is surprising to notice that it appears like there was no provision for shareholders who could not make it all the way to Abuja to join in virtually to follow the conversation. Provision was only made for physical attendance and voting through proxies. Do publicly listed companies still do that in this day and age? If there was one good thing that the world benefited from the last COVID-19 pandemic, it would be the compulsion to have meetings virtually, which then got nicely blended into our way of life afterwards. Several apps were developed and 'rediscovered' to accommodate virtual meetings, and have continued to be in use since...

Investors have been curious as to why Access Holdings PLC stock price has been underperforming, both below their expectation and compared to peers on the NGX (Nigerian Stock Exchange). Time was when Access Holdings stock price used to range similarly with United Bank for Africa (UBA) PLC, but as at today the gap between both is more than ₦12. In fact, among the FUGAZ, Accesscorp is the least priced, with Fidelity bank's share price, which is a second tier bank almost catching up with it. This is on the back of their meticulously crafted 5-year strategies which they have religiously been executing in batches since at least 2018, lofty expansion drive across Africa, aggressive growth of their fintech subsidiary, speed of completion of the CBN's recapitalization exercise way ahead of deadline, and the massive revenue and strong balance sheet they have been reporting. At the 2025 Annual General Shareholders Meeting, shareholders raised the same concern about the share price underpe...