Nigerians count losses to capital market crisis
By Our Reporters
THEY appeared ambushed. The crises were totally unexpected. As at the weekend, investors in the nation's capital market have had their fortunes whittled down, by over N9 trillion.
The groanings have now turned to wailings, as socio-economic profiles of victims have been de-constructed, with hopes of money and material "resurrection" now eclipsed, at least beyond conceivable future.
"I came, I saw and I was conquered," wailed Duduyemi Omojola, as he jetted out of the country, back to his former base in California, United States of America (USA), after his N100 million investment in the country's stock market, melted to N17.2 million.
Omojola could not even have the balance to his credit. He had recorded a N25 million deficit from bank loans, invested on his farm project, which crumbled under unsavoury investment regime, that has refused to end its tenure in the nation's economy.
Savouring the earlier boom in the stock market, National Co-ordinator of Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), Mr. Sunny Nwosu could not understand what hit him, when his stocks' value plummeted by 70 per cent, at the last count.
"It affected me just like others. It's sad. It hit me according to my exposure," Nwosu said, as he revealed that his other businesses have consequently fallen almost to ground zero.
To Mrs. Mary Ekeinde, a Lagos-based retired civil servant, "had I known" was the Swan song she could sing, but not dance to, as her investment of N6 million in stocks, now has a value of less than N2 million.
Ekeinde, who sold her three bedroom apartment in Shagari Estate, Ipaja, Lagos to raise funds for the investment, would not stop lamenting.
"Can you imagine the situation I have put myself into. What am I going to hand over to my children and grandchildren? I decided to sell my house, so that I could be saved from tenants' stress, only for me to invest wrongly."
Mayowa Omodele, an undergraduate in one of the nation's universities, may forever regret investing in the stock market, with his first-ever income.
Omodele, who realised N100,000 during his industrial training with one of the companies in Lagos, offloaded the whole amount on stocks. Last week, the value of the shares was less than N40,000.
"If I had known that it would all end up like this, I would not have involved myself in such an investment. It's most painful because I used the first front of my labour in life to invest in the wrong sector," he said.
Successor to the late Otunba Akintunde Asalu in the Nigerian Shareholders Solidarity Association (NSSA), Mr. Timothy Adesiyan was also caught in the quagmire.
The NSSA boss, who declined to disclose the amount of weight shed by his loss, said he now has to make do with his old car, against his earlier dream of buying a new one, befitting his status.
"One thing I realised I could not achieve with the crisis is the purchase of a car. If it were the time the market was booming, I should have bought another car, but with the meltdown, I don't know how many N1 or N2 shares that I can sell to get millions required to change my old car to the one that befits my status," Adesiyan lamented.
Beside the stock market crash, the dwindling value of the naira in the foreign exchange market is another source of worry to investors. Indeed, not a few called the tumbling naira the veritable harbinger of poverty, especially for salary earners, importers and manufacturers.
The Managing Director of Lagos-based Winners Pharmaceutical and Chemical Industry Limited, Mr. Joe Okpara, did not mince words in flaying the nation's money market management strategy, over the naira value.
"The state of the naira is affecting us negatively. We are now finding it difficult to pay our suppliers, who supplied us before the devaluation of the naira, due to the high cost of a dollar to naira. As at the time we ordered for the raw materials, a dollar was selling at N115, but now, it has risen to as high as N180. The most painful aspect of all is our inability to increase the price of our products."
The pangs of naira devaluation was also felt by small-scale business operators.
Mrs. Modupeola Adekolu, a boutique owner said the current devaluation of the naira has assailed her business.
According to her, the exchange rate of a naira to the dollar is now so high that buying items for sale is becoming difficult.
She noted that the huge difference is affecting sales as customers keep complaining about the high price of products.
The Executive Secretary of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Mr. Obafemi Olawore, said the marketers were finding it difficult to import petroleum products due to the huge debt owned them by government and the current devaluation of the naira.
According to him, the debt, coupled with the recent depreciation of the naira are responsible for the trend, adding that loans were not forthcoming from the banks due to unserviced debts by the marketers.
