Nigeria Content Online

The on-going
financial sector reforms and revelation of the true state of health of
Nigeria’s banking industry, makes a strong case for investments, Atedo
Peterside, chairman of the Stanbic IBTC Bank, said during the ‘Stanbic
IBTC 2010 Investor’s Conference’ in Lagos on Monday.

The three-day
conference is focused exclusively on the Nigerian economy with emphasis
on the capital market. The last two years have been turbulent for
financial markets around the world, including Nigeria. The Nigeria
Stock Exchange’s (NSE) all share index has recorded double digit
negative returns in the last two years, crashing from an all-time high
of 66, 731.20 in March 2008.

With a current all share index of 22,985.00, investors seeking for long-term returns can venture into the capital.

“Accordingly, in
tune with the theme of this conference: ‘Connect. Inform. Optimise,’ we
urge all participants to connect with each other and network as much as
possible; obtain information about your investment targets, and please
remember that Stanbic IBTC has an excellent research team with award
winning analysts and robust reports available to assist you to decide
on your investment priorities.”

Major crossroad

But Mr. Peterside
could not resist the urge to comment on the present political reality
in the country and the uncertainty that it has generated both locally,
and on the foreign scene.

“When the idea of
this conference was first discussed some months ago, I never imagined
that the range of questions from the overseas participants would
include several with a political slant,” he said. “As we all know,
these questions were prompted by recent political developments.
Unfortunately, I am unable to provide answers to some of the most
pertinent political questions. I can however, assure you that many of
us are asking these same ‘hard’ questions to key members of the
Executive and Legislative arms of our government and we promise to give
you meaningful feedback as soon as we have credible answers…

“My personal belief
is that Nigeria is currently at a ‘major crossroad.’ The crossroad I
speak of is in the political arena and in some ways it is about a
struggle between Good and Evil, a struggle between the Truth and Lies.”

But he assured investors that “the truth will soon prevail.”

“The foundations
upon which Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers Limited built its business model
from day one was a desire to attempt to tell investors the truth at all
times regarding the things that we do know and to be humble enough to
admit what we do not know… we are in the business of attempting to
guide investors and interacting with them continuously. We are however,
not in the business of deliberately deceiving or misinforming them.”

A major player

Stanbic IBTC
Stockbrokers is owned by the Stanbic IBTC Bank, a member of the South
African-owned Standard Bank Group, and is said to account for over 20
percent stock market in 2009.

The bank, through
its wholly owned stock broking and asset management subsidiary, IBTC
Asset Management Limited, has several excellent mutual funds including
the IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund, which is Nigeria’s largest mutual fund
with a net asset value in excess of N25 billion (as at December 2007).
It is the only bank that has a direct subsidiary that is a pension fund
administrator, through the market leading IBTC Pension Managers Limited
(IPML).

As at 30th
September, 2009, indicated profitability declined to N3.7 billion, a 65
percent decrease from the same period for 2008. For capital adequacy,
the Stanbic IBTC Plc has a 33 percentage ratio, compared to the 10
percent statutory requirement by the CBN.