By William Jimoh

MY BINUYO TEJU, a minority shareholder

Though the most popular form of investment in the capital market is share, there are other forms which includes, mutual funds and Treasury bill, T-bill, among others. Now talking about fund managers, there are many of them in the country though they are not very popular among investors and some don’t have interest in investing or keeping their money with a fund manager, but this does not negate the benefit of investing through them.

For instance, in Kakawa Asset Management, anybody in Kakawa discount fund gets interests twice a year, the first being in June when they pay 12 percent, whether they make profit or not is not a factor. The second is paid from July to December which is the second half of the year.

Now, let us talk about the dividend. Apart from the interest, the unit holders still have the benefit of getting dividend but unlike the interest, the dividend is not guaranteed. It depends on the amount they make after using your money to do business. If you give them your money to invest, after the whole operation, they will remove the capital/principal and pay dividend based what they make.

This is how it is done; they divide the profit they made into two, that is to say that the 100 percent profit is divided 50/50 and from one of the 50, then the rest is shared among the unit holders. Some people feel like they don’t want to give their money to any fund manager where they will not have control of it; they prefer to make decisions concernig their investments by themselves, but some people that are better informed prefer to invest in the capital market through fund managers where they are assured of my fixed return.

And if you are tired of their practice at any period of the year, you will get my full investment; others don’t want it this way. And that is to tell you that it is a matter of interest and understanding you have about the market. I cannot put my money in one basket because investing your money in a single form of investment is like pouring water into a basket. I diversify my investment in different asset classes so that if there is problem like what happened in 2008, all will not be lost.

CHIEF TIMOTHY ADESIYAN, Executive President, Nigeria Shareholders Solidarity Association (NSSA)

One thing with Fund Managers is that when you keep your money with them, the return on your investment and profit is guaranteed. Having guaranteed the reward they are going to give you, come rain or sunshine, whether they make profit of not, it is not your problem, they will not have option but to give you what they have guaranteed to pay you as it was agreed the day you contacted them for business.

There is therefore no cause for alarm, because these managers are doing well, they are professionals, honest and devoted to the ensuring that they meet up to every promise that they made. For instance, Kakawa Fund Manager, which is the best of the fund managers in the country today, goes beyond the guaranteed fund and promise to give more money to unit holders.

They told us as usual that after the guarantee fund, which they give investors as returns, whatever that remain from the fund’s profit will be shared among investors. And for this year, we have N52 million, which is an excess income which they will share after the normal returns based on the number of units. This is called special dividend.