Nigerians can now invest in more mutual funds

The coming year(s) may see more fund managers joining in the quest to explore and expand the Nigerian mutual fund space.

By Uche Ndimele

Mutual funds in Nigeria have been increasing both in popularity, assets under management (AUM), as well as in numbers. Though not all the mutual funds in the country are published, the SEC Net Asset Summary Report has been acting as a barometer on which to gauge or measure the health of the

industry.

Compared to other countries, mutual funds as an investible asset class is relatively new in Nigeria. In spite of its newness, the number of funds has grown from 1 in 1991 to 110 as of October 16th, 2020.

12 new mutual funds made it to the list out of this number. They include the following Alpha Etf, Anchoria Equity Fund, Anchoria Fixed Income Fund, Anchoria Money Market Fund, ARM Eurobond Fund, ARM Fixed Income Fund, Cordros Dollar Fund, FAAM Money Market Fund, FBN Nigeria Halal Fund, AVA GAM Fixed Income Dollar Fund, Trustbanc Money Market Fund, and Afrinvest Dollar Fund.

Just like the number of mutual funds in Nigeria increases, so has the asset under management or net asset value of mutual funds. As of October 16th, 2020, the total asset value of Nigeria mutual funds stood at N1.54 trillion or $4.05 billion when converted at a rate of N380/$.

What you should know

In the same vein, the number of fund managers also increased, although the increase is not as much as that of the number of mutual funds. So far in 2020, 4 fund managers joined the league of mutual fund managers in Nigeria. The new additions are:

• First Ally Asset Management Limited, which oversees the FAAM Money Market Fund with N718 million in assets under management.
• The next newcomer fund manager is Trustbanc Asset Management Limited whose only fund – Trustbanc Money Market Fund, has added N98 million to Nigeria’s total mutual fund asset value as of October 16, 2020.
• Anchoria Asset Management Limited currently has three mutual funds under its management – Anchoria Equity, Anchoria Fixed Income, and Anchoria Money Market funds, with a combined asset under management of N1.156 billion.
• Lastly, AVA Global Asset Management Limited has one fund – AVA GAM Fixed Income Fund, with an AUM of N523.8 million under its management.

Bottomline

This is indeed a good development because when compared with the same period in 2019; only one fund manager, Growth and Development Asset Management Limited (GDL) was added to the list with its GDL Money Market Fund.

More additions are not expected this year but the coming year(s) may see more fund managers joining in the quest to explore and expand the Nigerian mutual fund space.

Uche Ndimele

Uchenna Ndimele is the President of Quantitative Financial Analytics Ltd. MutualfundsAfrica.com and mutualfundsnigeria.com (both Quantitative Financial Analytics company website) is a leader in supplying mutual fund information, analysis, and commentary on African mutual funds. We provide reliable fund data; and ratings information that will add value to fund managers, the media, individual investors and investment clubs.