Awards for Excellence 2009: Nigeria

Nigerian banks increased their capital bases by $11 billion in 2007. Unfortunately, much of this seems to have gone directly or indirectly into the stock market, and after the Nigerian exchange crash last year, there has been a big sell-off of bank stock. Much of the international money in the exchange would perhaps have left anyway: when people invest in sub-Saharan Africa outside South Africa they often end up putting their money in Nigerian banks. But investors complained that a lack of transparency made it difficult to judge how badly individual banks were affected, and this exacerbated the sell-off.