The announcement of Muhamadu Buhari’s re-election must have surely pleased his supporters but, on the country’s stock exchange and at the international level, sentiments are mixed.

On Wednesday 27 February 2019, the NSE All-Share Index, the main index of this market barely took off, with +0.06% after a slowdown in the performance of the shares. As far as the NSE30, which gathers the 30 most performing listed firms on this exchange, lost 0.13%.

Analysts have different sentiments. For those who consider the technical fundamentals, there is a consensus that recommends the buying of NSE- listed firms. Macroeconomists have a different view. Aurelien Mali, one of the vice presidents of Moody's estimated that the re-election of Buhari is a sign of the continuity of negative indicators.

“As it appears that president Buhari seems to have to stay in power, the credit problems of Nigeria persists and includes a low growth environment, strong exposure of public and exports revenues to fluctuations in oil prices, weak institutions and high level of corruption,” he indicated in a comment sent to Ecofin Agency.

On the other hand, some analysts are less pessimistic. Days before the election, a recent research note published by Citi Group that dominates the African market of sovereign borrowing indicated that despite the challenges, Nigeria should expect some improvements. Its deficit should fall by 4.8%.

The country also recorded a $3.7 billion rise in its foreign reserve, a situation that offers it better external soundness.

Idriss Linge