Banks’ Executives Jump on Stocks following CBN Rate Cut

Nigerian banks’ executives are going all out to buy shares in their companies following the central bank rate cut.

Tony Elumelu, the Board Chairman, United Bank for Africa and family members bought shares of UBA in eight different transactions last week immediately the monetary policy rate was lowered.

This week, in a statement released through the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the Chairman added another 4,817,855 shares at N5.9999 per share.

Similarly, Dennis Olisa, an Executive Director of Zenith Bank Plc, bought 1 million shares at N17 per share. This was followed by another Zenith Bank Executive Director, Dr. Temitope Fasoranti, who purchased 1 million shares at N17 per unit as well.

Accordingly, Mr. Gbolahan Joshua, an Executive Director with Fidelity Bank Plc, acquired 6,300,000 shares at an average price of N1.86 per unit share.

In the same bank, a non-executive director/chairman, Mr. Mustafa Chike-Obi, bought 32,444,094 shares at an average price of N1.82 per share.

This started immediate monetary policy committee lowered the interest rate by 100 basis points from 12.5 percent to 11.5 percent last week. Stock investors are investing in shares again as they are projecting an improved economic outlook in the first half of 2021 given cheap money that is about to hit the economy.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has said it is pursuing a monetary expansionary policy to broaden economic productivity, improve output and moderate inflation through an increase in supply.

Therefore, investors are expecting an increase in capital injection into the economy. The deposit money banks, the intermediary between the central bank’s policy and borrowers, are expected to experience a broad-based growth across key metrics.