Sonnie Ayere, founder of Dunn Loren Merrifield in 2009. Under his leadership, Dunn Loren Merrifield unveils the context of the Nigerian financial market and African financial markets. In an interview with Financial afrik, he focuses on performance and prospects for 2021.

Sonnie Ayere was named Best CEO of the Decade in 2020 and DLM Capital won the "Innovative Investment Bank of the Year 2020" award at the Business Day Financial Institutions Award. According to him, for the year 2021, African stock markets behaved in a way that reflected frontier markets that had lost significant value over the years in favor of a higher-yielding leak to security assets.
" African stock markets have risen significantly in 2020; driven by the recovery in global growth long hampered by the trade war between China and the United States before the pandemic and the slowdown in overall economic activity on par with other countries following the occurrence of Covid-19. Investors looking for value found African financial assets at a significant discount to global markets. The global low-yield environment has pushed retail and institutional fixed income investors into equity investments in Nigeria as benchmark interest rates have fallen ," he said.
According to Sonnie Ayere, the relatively shallow depth of the market threatens activity in a context of low foreign currency reserves of African central banks. With each downward cycle in commodity prices, it is characteristic to see a corresponding decrease in the value of the currency for most African countries. That is why he will say, that the year 2021 marks the beginning of a coordinated response to the pandemic that has hit the global economy. " We see 2021 offering an era of new growth to struggling industries in the past.... We want to focus on areas that need funding. We expect the low-yield environment to provide short-term financing opportunities, further development of debt markets across Nigeria ," he said. Businesses will evolve, driven by new growth sectors, such as technology and rationalization or the possible exits of companies or entire industries.