School advises Nigerians in investment during elections

Lagos Business School has urged investors in the Nigerian stock market not to panic about the forthcoming elections, assuring them the market would rebound after the general elections.
Dr. Doyin Salami of the school made the appeal at an event organised by First Bank of Nigeria to mark the second anniversary of FirstGem (a product exclusively designed for women).
He said Nigerians should stop dwelling on uncertainties surrounding the 2019 elections, noting that elections would come and go.
Speaking on the topic “New frontiers for businesses in 2019,” Salami said Nigerians should tap into sectors with huge activities instead of dwelling on 2019 elections.
“Election is coming and it comes with uncertainties, there are over 150 million Nigerians and I’m sure that their lives will continue after the election.
“I’m optimistic of where we are, election will come and go and we hope we don’t fight the aftermath of the election. Whoever wins will manage the economy,”
Salami said.
He said the stock market which had gone down presently by about 15 per cent would rebound after the elections.
Salami added that Treasury Bills would offer higher returns next year, noting that people who were risk averse could invest in it.
Salami said Nigerians should look inwards and tap into the opportunities provided by the fast moving sectors with huge activities.
According to him, the sectors are agriculture, manufacturing, telecommunications and ICT, healthcare and oil and gas.
Salami said experience and knowledge would help entrepreneurs to identity new frontiers for business in 2019.
He noted that many businesses collapsed due to lack of understanding and wrong pricing.
Also speaking, Ms Arunma Oteh,  World Bank Vice President and Treasurer, identified Nigeria’s greatest challenge as extreme poverty, inequality,  climate change, anti globalisation and high population, among others.
Oteh said Nigeria would not achieve sustainable growth without tackling these challenges with a strong sense of urgency.
She said one way to tackle these problems was to broaden economic participation by closing the gender gap.
Oteh said globally, countries were losing 160 trillion dollars in wealth due to differences in lifetime earnings between women and men.
She said, “this amounts to an average of 23,620 dollars for each person in the 141 countries studied by the World Bank Group.”
Oteh noted that women were important for economic development and were the economic power house for society today.
Dr Adesola Adeduntan, the bank’s Managing Director, said it was the second anniversary of FirstGem, a female focused product.
Adeduntan said FirstGem had been designed on the path of what was discovered three years ago to fill the gap in ensuring women’s active participation in economic development.
He said it was not just a product but a complete life style support designed solely for women.
“At First Bank the reason why we have been successful for the past 124 years is because we put customers at the centre piece of all our actions,” Adeduntan said.
He said the bank had existed for the past 125 years in an unbroken manner and the record was still on.
“The reason why we have been successful is our ability to invent, reinvent and reinvent ourselves.
“You can only be successful like that when you put your customer at the centre piece of all your actions. That is the secret of our success.
“In designing our FirstGem product, we are very clear on the space we want to occupy,” he said.