…warns capital market not a casino
…says gains remain concentrated in large capitalisation names
When global financial markets look for world-beating returns, the paths to the top can be starkly contrasting. While South Korea’s recent stock surge was propelled by the high-stakes, hyper-focused wave of artificial intelligence (AI), Nigeria’s explosive bull run to world’s best-performing stock market anchored entirely in domestic economic restructuring, banking sector recapitalisation, and stabilising local currency dynamics.
“The market we surpassed is an instructive comparison. A single investment theme, artificial intelligence, drove almost all of South Korea’s surge in 2026. When that theme soured globally, the Kospi plummeted more than 20 percent from its June highs in a matter of weeks, falling into technical bear market territory. A one-legged market falls when that leg breaks,” said Emomotimi Agama, Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“Nigeria’s rally has multiple legs. The single most important commodity in any frontier market is an investor’s belief that money brought in can be taken out. Three years of macroeconomic reform, spanning exchange rate liberalisation, fiscal consolidation and the restoration of orthodox monetary policy, have rebuilt that belief,” said Agama, adding that reform, currency stability, oil-linked confidence and strong domestic institutional liquidity are fundamentals, “and fundamentals do not vanish overnight when a global trend turns”.
