World curiosity drives Nigerian market re-rating — NGX CEO

The Group Managing Director and Chief Government Officer of the Nigerian Alternate Group, Temi Popoola, has mentioned Nigeria’s capital market is present process a re-rating as international buyers start to reassess the nation’s financial trajectory and funding potential.

Talking throughout a dwell interview on the BBC’s ‘Newsday’ programme in London, as a part of broader investor and stakeholder engagements throughout President Bola Tinubu’s state go to to the UK, Mr Popoola famous that latest market efficiency, mixed with higher coverage readability, is contributing to a shift in how Nigeria is perceived throughout the international funding group.

“What we’re seeing is a gradual re-rating of Nigeria. Buyers are starting to have a look at the information extra carefully, the returns, the reforms and the enhancing macroeconomic course, and that’s altering sentiment,” he mentioned.

He defined that Nigeria’s fairness market has delivered robust returns in latest months, positioning it extra competitively amongst rising and frontier markets. In response to him, this efficiency helps to recalibrate long-held threat perceptions and entice renewed curiosity from worldwide buyers.

He added that enhancements in Nigeria’s power panorama, together with elevated home refining capability and ongoing sector reforms, are serving to to scale back the economic system’s publicity to exterior oil worth shocks, additional strengthening investor confidence.

Mr Popoola emphasised that past short-term market actions, consistency in coverage implementation might be vital in sustaining this shift in notion. “World capital responds to readability and consistency; as these parts grow to be extra evident, Nigeria naturally turns into extra investible.”

He additionally highlighted the significance of sustained engagement with international monetary centres, noting that platforms equivalent to London play a key position in connecting Nigeria’s capital market to worldwide swimming pools of capital. In response to him, Nigeria’s evolving market construction, mixed with ongoing reforms, is strengthening its place as a viable vacation spot for long-term funding.

“There’s a broader recognition that Nigeria gives important alternatives. The main focus now could be guaranteeing that this recognition interprets into sustained capital flows,” he mentioned.

Mr Popoola concluded that Nigeria’s capital market is more and more being seen by way of a extra balanced and data-driven lens, reflecting each its resilience and its long-term development potential.

Since President Bola Tinubu took workplace in Might 2023, the Federal Authorities has applied two important reforms which have caught the attention of worldwide buyers: the removing of the gasoline subsidy and the unification of overseas alternate charges.