Alhaji Yekini Adeyemi Abas

Some shareholders and I have plans to establish our own shareholders association, which will be registered with the name ‘Galaxy Shareholders Association.’ This is because we are not satisfied with some of the attitude and behaviour of the many of the leaders of the shareholders.

Some leaders, without the consent of their members, will go and have pre-AGMs with some companies. Some of them will collect gifts from these companies for their members. So, instead of using the gifts for the benefit of all the members, they would covet the gifts to themselves.

Another reason is that we believe that Rome was not built in a day. Groups like Independent Shareholders Association and others that have grown so big all started from little beginning.

Some of the benefits we derive from being members are, for instance, we get to know each other when we meet and we meet occasionally to discuss important issues, ranging from those that have to do with the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian Stock Exchange and other regulatory agencies and their policies. We also learn how best to relate with the brokers.

For example, in the AGM I am just coming from, they discussed sending important information to investors with compact disks, but the point was emphasized that it is better to bring printed copies because not all the shareholders have what it takes to access information that is saved on disks. But for shareholders in our association, this is not our first time of hearing this. We are well acquainted with this already.

Another point I want to raise is the way some shareholders behave in meetings. They behave in an improper manner. In our association, we enlighten members on the proper attitude expected from investors when they are in meetings. There was a time about three years back, when somebody died due to his attitude towards matter. So, we enlighten ourselves to be orderly and diligent.

In life, we have advantages and disadvantages. The advantages may be more than the disadvantages. So, as a result, I don’t believe there wouldn’t be any disadvantage of not belonging to a shareholders association.

I have been in the system since 1978 and I bought NCR and the reason for buying it is that I happen to be a Computer Science Professional. Later, I realised the benefit of buying shares. As at now, I have shares in nothing less than 100 different companies.
To me, it is those that belong to no association that run in and out of the market. We that have been in the system for a long time allow our stocks to fall and rise with the market.

Elder Okoh Israel Ngozi

I am a member of the Nigerian Shareholders Solidarity Association founded by late Chief Akintunde Asalu. The current president is Chief Timothy Adesiyan.

There are a lot of benefits to derive when you are a member of a shareholders association. One of the benefits of being a member is that you have the opportunity of becoming a member of the audit committee of any company provided you are recommended by your association and you can as well become a member of the board through their recommendation.

There are also a whole lot of disadvantages when you dont belong to any shareholders association. One of such is that you will not be entitled to any of the benefits that the members may be entitled enjoy. Like many associations do, they educate, encourage and enlighten their members on issues regarding the market. They advise them on steps to take and how to solve certain problems. And if you do not belong to them, you cannot enjoy all these advantages.

Other benefits attached to being a member includes: meeting with other shareholders either at their places of meetings or during AGMs and this kind of relationship will also help to make informed decisions which is very important when you are operating in the market.

They will educate you for instance on the shares to buy and those not to buy, when to buy and when to sell, including how to go about matters regarding your investment so that you will be protected from falling into the wrong hands.

For instance, when I bought my shares and discovered that the price is going higher, I sold some and bought others in their place. I did this because I am in the market for profit making, but not every shareholder knows this. So, there is need to rub minds together.  Two good heads are better than one.

Most of the shares I am buying now are for the future and it is quite unfortunate that during the last economic meltdown, everything went down. It is now that it is recovering and by the special grace of God, it will continue to grow.

I am selling some of my shares that are appreciating. For instance, those of the International Breweries which I bought with 80 kobo per share in those days, and the last I sold about a month ago was at the rate of N25 per share. This implies that I have made a lot of gains compared with the price at which I bought them. Two things attracted me to the market-dividend and bonus, and they are what we are always particular about.