The Nigerian Stock Exchange and the Private Investor

The findings of this research suggests that the Nigerian private investors like their counterparts elsewhere (e.g. the U.S.A. and the U.K.) do like both capital appreciation and dividend income. Furthermore, the majority of the respondents preferred to invest in ordinary shares rather than in any other securities on the Stock Exchange. Indeed it was found that other forms of securities, especially the government development stocks or bonds, were little known to the respondents.The majority of the respondents (57.9%, Table 4) appeared to take investment decisions on their own initiative rather than acting on the advice of stockbrokers or other experts, and that they often rely on company reports for market information. This is perhaps due to lack of clear understanding of the role of the stockbrokers in investment advice.The respondents showed a great reliance on three main sources of market information for investment decisions [company reports (34%), stockbrokers/or experts (27%), and the media (27%)]. However, as other authors have shown the average Nigerian investor may not be financially literate, the great reliance on company reports implies that the private investors take investment decisions by guessing at a company’s financial progress and position. The media has shown its value in providing market information and educating the public on matters of investment but there is also a need for enhanced financial journalism in the country.Taxation does not appear to have any significant effect on personal share ownership in Nigeria. The large majority of the respondents showed their ignorance of tax rate on dividends. This may be partly because the tax on dividends was relatively small at the time of the survey (1992) and did not warrant serious consideration by the private investors whose size of share ownership is normally small.The effects of the background characteristics of the respondents, (education and training, portfolio holdings, number of shareholdings, frequency of contact with stockbrokers, and years of experience of share ownership) did have an effect on people’s understanding of listed companies. With the exception of the size of shareholdings and years of experience of share ownership all the presented variables have a significant influence on the respondents’ understanding of listed companies (see Table 9). Training in business and/or finance has no significant influence on the method of taking investment decisions. Both respondents with significant training and those who had little or no training in business and/or finance appeared to rely on their own initiative when taking investment decisions. It is also clear that, although the majority of the respondents expressed their satisfaction with the services rendered by the Stock Exchange, a great many respondents seem to have reservations on the efficacy of the services of the stock exchange and the market in general.