The Pearl Awards Nigeria, the country’s foremost platform for recognising excellence in the capital market, has announced the nominees for its 2025 awards edition, marking three decades of celebrating corporate performance and excellence in Nigeria’s capital market.
At a press conference held in Lagos on Friday, the Awards’ President/CEO, Tayo Orekoya, revealed that this year’s event would feature an expanded scope, including two newly introduced categories aimed at celebrating outstanding performance in public governance and service.
The 30th Anniversary Edition, themed “Celebrating a Legacy of Corporate Excellence,” is scheduled to take place on Sunday, November 30, 2025, at the Lagos Oriental Hotel. It will adopt a hybrid format to accommodate both physical and virtual participation.
Speaking to journalists at a press conference, Orekoya attributed the sustained success of the awards to three key pillars: divine providence, a board of eminent professionals with proven integrity, and an unwavering commitment to objectivity, fairness, and transparency.
“The PEARL Awards are founded on objectivity, fairness, and equity. They are based on verifiable indices,” he said, noting that the organisation publishes detailed criteria, graphs, and charts after each ceremony to enable stakeholders to independently verify the outcomes.
Instituted in 1995, the PEARL Awards remain Nigeria’s only capital market performance-based recognition programme, scientifically determined from empirical data derived from quoted companies’ audited reports and their performance on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX).
This year’s edition will recognise corporate excellence across three main categories — the Main Competitive Awards, Honorary Awards, and Special Recognition Awards.
The Main Competitive Awards comprise Sectoral Leadership Awards and Market Excellence Awards, covering 15 sectors from Agriculture to Real Estate Investment Trusts, with three nominees in each category. In the Agriculture sector, nominees include Livestock Feeds Plc, Okomu Oil Palm Plc, and Presco Plc, while Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, Wema Bank Plc, and Zenith Bank Plc are contending for the Banking category.
The Market Excellence Awards will reward outstanding companies across 10 performance indicators, including Turnover Growth, Earnings Yield, Return on Equity, Dividend Yield, and Share Price Appreciation.
To commemorate its 30th anniversary, the Board of Governors introduced two new distinctions — the PEARL Excellence in Public Governance Award and the PEARL Excellence in Public Service Award.
