Afrinvest West Africa has rebranded its investment platform from Optimus to PlutusNeo as it positions the app for the equities market, which it projects to hit N140 trillion this year.

The Group Managing Director, Ike Chioke, stated this during an interview on Channels Television’s Business Morning. He projected that the Nigerian equities market could appreciate by 40 per cent in 2026, reaching N140 trillion from the historic N100 trillion milestone achieved in 2025.

In a best-case scenario, Chioke predicted the market to surge by as much as 80 per cent.The bullish outlook, he said, followed a strong 2025 performance in which the market delivered returns of over 50 per cent.

“Many companies recorded gains of 50 per cent, 75 per cent and even 80 per cent. A few, I know, delivered returns of up to 300 per cent,” he disclosed.

Improving macroeconomic fundamentals, Chioke said, underpinned Afrinvest’s positive outlook for the economy. With the country’s economy growing by 3.9 per cent in 2025, he said Afrinvest Research projected a growth of 4.3 per cent this year, reflecting what he described as constructive momentum.

He attributed the improving environment partly to actions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which he said stabilised the foreign exchange (FX) market, lifted external reserves to about $45.6 billion and narrowed the gap between the official and parallel markets to less than one per cent through the introduction of the electronic foreign exchange matching system.

Although the monetary policy rate remains elevated at 27 per cent, Chioke said conditions favour monetary easing, citing a more dovish stance among global central banks and the potential for rate cuts of between 200 and 300 basis points.

Chioke identified several headwinds that could undermine market performance, including geopolitical tensions. He warned that potential United States tariffs under the President Donald Trump administration could pose risks to Nigeria’s export opportunities.

He described PlutusNeo by Afrinvest as a comprehensive platform that aggregates the company’s securities trading, asset management and investment research capabilities.

The Afrinvest boss explained that some of the issues Nigeria faced when the market collapsed were related to transparency, as investors needed to see their purchased shares instantly in their accounts.