Nigerian investors should begin to seek alternative ways of investing, Investors Told

Mr. Olumide Oyetan, a director with the Stanbic IBTC Asset Management suggested that Nigerian investors should begin to seek alternative ways of investing their monies for better returns as the bearish trend in the market continues unabated. According to him, "the benefit of alternative investments is to enhance total return and diversification of investments."

The alternative areas of investments he said are; Private Equity/Venture Capital, Credit/Structured Notes, Emotional Assets (Coins, Jewellery, Fine Art & Wine, etc) and Timber/Farmlands and Oil & Gas. Other options with high returns are "derivatives or physicals such as managed futures, commodities, currencies, hedge fund strategies, trading in volatility, carbon emissions, and weather derivatives among others."

He however cautioned that, attention should be paid to correlation of the asset classes and the fund manager's skill in search of the elusive alpha. According to him, "accessing alternative investments through Standard Bank Group/Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Limited can assure of access to attractive pipeline of Private Equity deals through Stanbic IBTC Bank."