Nigeria’s Stock Market Frenzy Sends Zombie Firm Share Price Up 250%

June, 2026 69-year old Boniface Okezie, makes a call inside the Nigerian Stock Exchange office building in Lagos. Photographer: Victor Adewale/Bloomberg Photo by Victor Adewale /Photographer: Victor Adewale/Blo

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(Bloomberg) — For most of the past two decades, the Union Dicon Salt factory in Nigeria’s capital has been idle. Losses are piling up and its largest shareholder has seemingly vanished.

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Essentially, the company is moribund. Yet, in the stock market, its value has done nothing but rise this year. For reasons even Union Dicon executives can’t explain, small-time speculators have been buying the shares in droves. It’s up almost 250% this year, putting it among the 10 best stocks in Nigeria this year.  

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The rally is part of a stock frenzy that’s sweeping the country, driven in part by day traders looking for the chance to strike it rich. Even though the Nigerian exchange is tiny by global standards (the median market value of publicly traded companies is just $35 million), its rise underscores the power of brokerage apps pulling in new customers from far-flung corners of the world and giving them the chance to speculate on stocks pumped up by social-media hype. 

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Retail investors have become a formidable force in Nigeria. Individuals were behind a third of all trades on the Nigerian Exchange at the end of 2025, according to the latest available stock exchange data. That’s up from a fifth the previous year. Five years ago, they figured far less.

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Boniface Okezie, a 70-year-old owner of a delivery company, is one of those small-time traders. He’s hoping his punt on Union Dicon shares, or maybe another of his wagers, will be the one that makes him a fortune. While his portfolio contains some larger firms, he’s most excited about the small ones. 

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“Those penny stocks, even with small naira in your pocket you can buy them,” Okezie said one afternoon as he milled about the lobby of the Nigerian stock exchange. “The market is a risk, so we are risk takers,” he said. “It’s something we are addicted to.”

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To Union Dicon executive Alfred James, the rally is an absurdity. There was a little re-start of the ramshackle factory last August but, James says, salt production has essentially been zero since 2004. And, he adds, the company “has not paid dividends to anybody. I just think people are getting feelers as if something is happening.”

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Those “feelers” have helped push the stock above 23 naira, the equivalent of about 2 US cents, from 7 naira back in January. 

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For the wider Nigerian market, there are plenty of good reasons behind the rally. Dangote Cement Plc has doubled this year as its owner, billionaire Aliko Dangote, presses ahead with plans for a secondary listing in London. Oil companies, like Seplat Energy Plc, are reaping windfall profits. 

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It’s a trend fraught with risk, especially in a country where nearly half the population lives in extreme poverty. Most individual traders tend to end up losing money because they are poor at stock selection and market timing, said Bige Kahraman, a professor at Oxford University’s Said Business School who has studied retail investing.