Nigeria's investment returns are gloomy, but are there hidden booms?

Nigeria's economy grows because we consume. Not because Nigerians save or invest. Savings as a percentage of GDP have fallen from over 80% in the 1980s to barely 20% today. And compared to the ₦14 trillion worth of consumption in 2020, only ₦3 trillion went into investment.

Could investing be one of the last things on most of our minds? I ask this because barely 500,000 accounts (retail and corporate) traded in the financial assets offered in our local stock market in the second quarter of this year.

However, according to official data, there are about 14.5 million trading and non-trading accounts. But this is still about 7% of Nigeria's estimated 200 million people. A few months ago, Robinhood, a famous trading app in the US and just one of the many other American stock trading applications, claimed to have 13 million users with an average age of 31. Also,