By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Over the weekend, more than 3,000 Nigerians joined a public forum organised by the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited to educate them on money management and sustainable investing skills.
The programme, moderated by US-based financial planner and author, Mr Kalu Aja, was held via a Twitter Spaces session, with the different products available on the exchange, including equities, fixed income, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), mutual funds and Exchange Traded Derivatives (ETDs) explained to them by the Head of Product Development at NGX, Ms Chidinma Chukwueke-Okolo.
She spoke about ETFs and mutual funds, which give investors options to diversify their investments and reduce risk in the market, listing examples on NGX.
“ETFs are low-cost passive investment schemes that track the performance of listed indices on the Exchange and help to diversify while Mutual Funds are portfolios of different investor funds pooled by a fund manager to invest actively in the market,” Ms Chukwueke-Okolo added.
She also spoke on responsible investing in accordance with the theme of Global Money Week, explaining to the participants how to access sustainable investment products on NGX.
The capital market expert informed prospective investors to watch out for the recently approved NGX Technology Board, which will feature listings from tech companies who wish to gain access to the capital market, urging investors to take advantage of NGX’s website to do their research on the market and improve their knowledge.
Also speaking, the chief executive of MoneyAfrica and Ladda.ng, Ms Tosin Olaseinde, gave practical investing tips to listeners and stressed the importance of long-term investing, budgeting and saving on financial security.
“You have to be intentional about cultivating good financial habits. Also, understand your risk appetite and diversify between low, medium and high-risk investments,” she posited.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka