Asset manager to Nigerians: Invest in real sector rather than low yield fixed income securities

Ola Olabinjo, the managing director of Skystone Capital and Investment Limited, has advised Nigerians to see low yields on fixed-income securities as a chance to re-direct their capital and invest in the real sector.

Speaking at the maiden webinar organised by Faithshield Investment Management Limited, a Swiss-based firm, Olabinjo said investing in the real sector will stimulate job creation, drive double-digit investment returns and galvanise economic activities.

The webinar was themed ‘Foreign exchange, interest rate and inflation: How they affect wealth creation’.

The Skystone Capital boss said job creation and increased economic activity will drive the revolution needed to resuscitate the Nigerian economy which has been affected by twin shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia which led to low oil prices.

He also opined that domestic money managers must follow the footsteps of asset managers in developed countries who are now channelling investible capital to critical sectors like sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, transport infrastructure and affordable basic services including housing, healthcare, and education.

Speaking alongside Nwabueze Amiaka, Faithshield Investment Management Limited managing director, Olabinjo said the efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to encourage lending to the private sector and the recently launched N15 trillion Infrastructure Development Company PLC (InfraCo) expected to be co-owned with the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) is s step in the right direction.

He also explained that Nigerians should expect a slowdown of inflationary pressures as the gains of the federal government’s investments in rail and road networks across the country begins to kick in.

Olabinjo said the current high headline inflation mainly due to the growth in food inflation is a result of the huge infrastructure deficit around transport, processing, warehousing, etc. required to move agriculture produce from farm to markets.