Business
‘Nigeria’s Mutual Funds Rose To N1.6trn In 2020′
Funds reporting needs to be harmonised as Nigeria’s mutual funds rose to N1.6tn as of the end of 2020, Coronation Asset Management Limited has said.
The firm disclosed this on Monday in its report on mutual funds titled ‘Comparing mutual funds – Apples and oranges; why harmonised reporting is the next step forward’.
Part of the report read, “The mutual fund industry in Nigeria is growing fast. The total assets of the mutual fund industry in Nigeria grew by 50 per cent in 2020, to N1.6tn.
“Yet this is only 14 per cent of the size of the much larger pension fund industry. So, it needs to keep growing in order to become a financial force”.
While presenting the report during a virtual event on Monday, the Coronation Research team, headed by Guy Czartoryski, said the report examined what happens when an investor seeks comparative information on mutual funds, and takes the example of naira-denominated fixed income funds.
He said the data reported by these funds was very diverse, with different accounting methods used to arrive at very different unit price performance data.
He said this meant that investors lacked the kind of easy comparisons between funds that existed in developed markets, comparisons that could be found on the Morningstar and Financial Times websites.
According to him, “In our view, Nigeria’s diverse measures stand in the way of the development of the industry.
“Although it is growing rapidly, we believe that Nigeria’s mutual fund industry requires several more years of growth to reach the N12.3tn total size of Nigeria’s pension funds”.
The report said if Nigerian funds must play in the international league, they needed to adopt Global Investment Performance Standards.
While noting that very few Nigerian fund managers applied GIPS at the moment, it stated that mark-to-market accounting was one of the cornerstones of GIPS.
The report said, “Global investors have access to data on thousands of fund across the world and, thanks to adoption of GIPS, the data is comparable and it is free. Anyone can use the Morningstar and Financial Times websites to compare thousands of funds”.
It stated that the first step was to harmonise reporting among Nigeria’s mutual funds.
GIPS, it added, had to be a long-term goal because introducing GIPS was expensive and takes time to enforce.
Harmonising the reporting of Nigeria’s Mutual Funds was a necessary step to creating comparable UP data and helping the industry to achieve its potential, the report said.
The United States Trade Representative (USTR) has criticised Nigeria’s import ban on 25 categories of goods, claiming that the restrictions limit market access for American exporters.
This is the effect of President Donald Trump’s tariffs introduction on goods entering the United States, with Nigeria facing a 14 per cent duty.
The USTR highlighted the impact of Nigeria’s import ban on various sectors, particularly agriculture, pharmaceuticals, beverages, and consumer goods.
The restrictions affect items such as beef, pork, poultry, fruit juices, medicaments, and alcoholic beverages, which the United States sees as significant barriers to trade.
The agency argues that these limitations reduce export opportunities for United States businesses and lead to lost revenue.
“Nigeria’s import ban on 25 different product categories impacts United States exporters, particularly in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, beverages, and consumer goods.
“Restrictions on items like beef, pork, poultry, fruit juices, medicaments, and spirits limit United States market access and reduce export opportunities.
“These policies create significant trade barriers that lead to lost revenue for United States businesses looking to expand in the Nigerian market”, the agency said .
In 2016, Nigeria implemented the ban on these 25 items as part of efforts to control imports and stimulate local production.
Some of the banned items include poultry, pork, refined vegetable oil, sugar, cocoa products, spaghetti, beer, and certain medicines.
On March 26, 2025, the Federal Government also announced plans to halt solar panel imports to encourage local manufacturing as part of its push for clean energy.
A leading agribusiness strategist and digital agriculture expert, Ayo Oluwa Okediji, has sought cooperative-driven investments in sustaining growth of poultry industry in Nigeria.
He said the poultry industry was at a defining moment and requires urgent structural reforms to secure its future and ensure long-term sustainability.
Speaking on the theme, “Strengthening Poultry Farming Through Cooperative Synergy and Strategic Investments”, at the recently concluded Oyo Mega Poultry Workshop 2025 in Ibadan, Okediji called on poultry farmers, cooperative leaders, financial institutions and policy makers to rethink the existing structure of the poultry sector.
He stressed the need to transition from fragmented, individually-driven operations to well-structured, cooperative-led enterprises capable of attracting sustainable financing and securing long-term viability.
He said, “Our poultry sector cannot thrive on individual effort alone. We need to organise ourselves into cooperative clusters, build strong governance systems and position ourselves to attract the level of investment needed to sustain this industry beyond this generation.”
Drawing on lessons from successful global cooperative models such as Rabobank in the Netherlands and Landus Cooperative in the United States, Okediji introduced the FarmClusters Poultry Model, a locally adapted solution developed by Agribusiness Dynamics Technology Limited (AgDyna), a subsidiary of AgroInfoTech Africa.
According to him, the model is currently being piloted in Oyo State in partnership with PANOY Agribusiness Limited and local poultry cooperatives.
The Rivers State Representative of the Nigeria Chambers of Commerce, Mines, Industries and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Mr. Erasmus Chukwundah, has urged palm oil farmers to consider hybrid seedlings for planting, if they must break even in palm oil business.
Chukwundah said this recently at the Free Oil Palm Business Climate Smart Best Management Practice/Assistance Training organized by Partnership Initiative In Niger Delta (PIND) for Palm Oil Farmers in Elele, Ikwerre Local Government Area.
The Rivers representative said until palm oil farmers begin to consider such hybrid oil palm seedlings, they may not meet up with the daily increasing demand of palm oil in the market.
According to him, the seedlings produce up to 30 bunches at once that ripen same time.
He said PIND decided to partner with Oil Palm Growers Association of Nigeria (OPGAN) to ensure that the message was received by the targeted audience.
According to him, palm oil remained a popular choice of industry operators as it could be converted to many other products such as vegetable cooking oil.
He also noted that products such as motor tyers, marine ropes and others are now gotten from the palm tree.
Chukwundah, who is the immediate past Director-General of Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Mines, Industries, and Agriculture (PHCCIMA), further warned against use of unrecommended fertilisers in growing oil palms.
He noted that such practices could limit its export value or chances as the foreign marketers have a way of detecting such .
He reiterated the need for organic fertilizers, including poultry droppings, to enable them have a natural palm oil.
“People must reduce physical contact with palm oil production. That is why we are campaigning for hydrolic oil mills. The foreign markets are no longer interested in crude method of palm oil production”, he said.
Meanwhile, one of the farmers, Sonny Didia, who appreciated Chukwundah’s commitment towards the concern of farmers, appealed for an urgent need for loan opportunity with low interest rate in order to enable them beat the target.
King Onunwor