Investors have been advised to take advantage of the low prices of shares and increase their investment at the stock market. The Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo, gave this advice while speaking during a courtesy visit by Capital Market Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CAMCAN) to the bank in Lagos recently.
According to him, it is the better to invest when prices are low. Okonkwo said most investors are still reluctant to patronise the stock market because of their experience during the last market down turn.
“Now that prices are low, is the best time to invest and as things turn around, people will harvest. Like Warren Buffet said, ‘be greedy when others are fearful and be fearful when others are greedy’. People are greedy when the market is rising because they can see and fearful when the market is down. Unfortunately, for many Nigerians the only time they knew about the market was when the market was booming, people were putting their money and they lost their money. So many of them are still skeptical about shares,” he said.
The Fidelity Bank boss, who stressed the need for stakeholder education on financial inclusion in order to increase the numbers of domestic investors participating in the market, therefore tasked CAMCAN members to create more awareness about shares investment.
“We need stakeholder education more now because we would be relying on journalists to let the people know, especially those who keep their money out of financial system that financial inclusion is not just about people opening accounts in banks. It also includes access to capital market that is those who do not know about shares. That is not only on opening accounts but also to learn to assess the capital market. This will increase domestic investors’ participation in the equity market,” he added.
Okonkwo disclosed that from the experience of Fidelity Bank in its savings promotion, creating awareness is very important in the financial inclusion drive.
“Our promo boosted our retrial business significantly just because awareness was created. And I believe if enough awareness is created about investment opportunities in the market, retail participation will increase significantly,” the Fidelity Bank Plc said.
