FRI, JAN 24 2020-theG&BJournal– Mr Peter Ashade, United Capital, Group Chief Executive Officer, said the country’s investment climate was a pointer for a birth of alternative investments beyond equities and fixed income securities.
He spoke at United Capital’s 2020 Outlook with the theme: Decade of Alternative Investments (A Paradigm shift), in Lagos were top business executives also weighed in on the issue of alternative investible instruments that would deepen the financial markets beyond 2020.
Ashade said that the country’s macro-economic policy environment in the first quarter of 2019 showed that 2020 would be a different playing field, not just for the capital market operators, but for general investing public.
According to Ashade, with rates on Treasury Bills (TBs) at low single digit, the Nigerian equity market was the global worse performer in 2019.
‘’The development called for fresh thinking, for creation of alternative investment instruments. Over the last few decades, developments in the Nigerian capital market have mirrored over micro economic trend. In the years between 2000 and 2009, real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth averaged 7.7 per cent driven by economic reforms in banking, telecommunications and pension industry”, he said.
Ashade said, the last decade was not as positive, as average real GDP growth slumped to 3.7 per cent from 7.7 per cent in the previous decade.
Mr Bismarck Rewane, the Managing Director, Derivatives Company Ltd, focusing on the economy said that the country’s economic growth was not in line with its population growth, noting that Nigeria failed to achieve some of its 2020 goals.
“As we go to the next decade, key issue is about growth, nothing else; all other things are relevant, necessary, but not sufficient. We have a growth problem, we have a poverty problem; poverty problem is also a regional problem, abject poverty is defined as people who consume less than 1.8 dollars a day,” he said.
Rewane suggested that fixing the country’s power crisis and insecurity are paramount to boosting investor confidence.
Mr Ken Etim, Managing Partner, Banwo & Ighodalo and Mr Eguarekhide Longe, Managing Director, AIICO Pension Managers Ltd spoke to need for effective regulation and adherence to the rule of law to boost investor confidence and policy consistence respectively to keep investors confidence high.
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