The total mutual funds’ assets under management (AuM) in Nigeria hit N1.284 trillion ($3 billion) at the end of July 2021, according to the latest data from the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC.
Nigeria has a population of 200 million people, but only about 4 million have a stock brokerage account.
The promise of mutual funds including ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) is the idea that retail investors that are not very sophisticated can forget about stock picking on their own and invest in low cost funds managed by professionals.
Assets under management held in money market funds hold the top spot at N490.1 billion, with the top fund manager in that category being Stanbic IBTC Asset Management limited (N210 billion), followed by FBN Capital Asset management (N133 billion) and Asset and Resources Management company limited (N54.5 billion).
Hot on their heels are assets held in fixed income funds which totalled N444.4 billion in the period (July 2021).
Top fund managers for this category of assets include Stanbic IBTC Asset management (N154.7 billion) and United Capital Asset management (N119.8 billion).
Bond funds come in next with total Assets under management of N231 billion. Stanbic IBTC, United Capital and FBN Capital are the top fund managers in this category.
Real Estate funds (N50.86 billion), Mixed Funds (N28.9 billion), Equity based funds (N15.13 billion), ethical funds (N12.32 billion) and Exchange Traded Funds or ETFs at N12.05 billion made up the rest.