Nigerian Banks, Stockbrokers, and Services for Nigerians Abroad

I think a thread that addresses issues peculiar to Nigerians abroad is due. We could exchange information and share ideas and experiences here. I have been out of Nigeria for a while but have been tuned in recently because of the Stockmarket.

For Bank accounts, go with UBA NRN, accounts designed for Non Resident Nigerians. I opened the accounts early this year (savings, current, and domiciliary accounts) and all my correspondence has been by email. I complete documents, scan, and email them as attachments. My relationship officer has been very responsive and professional.
http://www.ubaplc.com/newubaplc/defaultNRN.asp

I recently applied for Diamond Bank's account for Non Resident Nigerians called Diamond Reach. I funded the account on Thursday so I cannot comment on their service but so far they have been responsive and professional. My expectation is if UBA, an old generation bank can be as good as I have experienced, Diamond Bank, a new generation bank would match or do better.
http://www.diamondbank.com/metadot/index.pl?iid=5347

Skye bank also has a product for non resident Nigerians but I haven't used it. It is called Skye Global Account.
http://www.skyebankng.com/skye_products.php?id=global

As for a Stockbroker, I am with Vetiva and so far they have been exceptional compared to the complaints I have seen posted on Nairaland and StockmarketNigeria. They are professional and responsive but require N1 million or $8000 to open an account. I was hesitant at first but my experience with other brokers made me pay up for better service.

I will post more later but hope this helps.

Finally an intelligent thread. have you been able to come up with a way to fund your acct with your brokers without having to send the money to a" trusted "relative and hoping they will deposit it with the broker?

akininNC:

Finally an intelligent thread. have you been able to come up with a way to fund your acct with your brokers without having to send the money to a" trusted "relative and hoping they will deposit it with the broker?

Thanks akininNC.

Yes, some brokers have domiciliary accounts in Nigeria to which you can wire the funds to.
Vetiva has a domiciliary account with Diamond Bank in Nigeria but the best part is you wire the money to Citi Bank in the US which then transfers the money to Diamond Bank in Nigeria, so you pay the domestic wire fee, not the foreign wire fee. For me this is paying $20 instead of $40 per wire. The exchange rate Vetiva uses has been the official rate and it has been good so far, no other charges. I have been doing this without issue.

BGL has something similar with Access Bank routing through Citi bank. I recommend you check with your broker.

For Cashcraft that does not utilize this facility because of “exorbitant charges”, in their words, I have had to use my UBA Account to do an online transfer to Cashcraft’s UBA account, then email the cyber receipt to Cashcraft as proof of the deposit. I just did this for the Union Diagnostics Private Placement.

@ All

What are the minimum you can have to open a stock broking account in Naija, is there any stock brokers that takes #100,000:00 for account opening?

Well,UBA may be good and smooth but i want you to be carefull of their rough edges.I have accounts with them as well they are even my brokers.Hence their exorbitant and unnecessary charges is what i dont like.For instance giving an instruction to them to transfer cash from one uba account to the other which i belive shouldnt attract charges they do charge.Or paying into your account from another city or withdrawing from another city in Nigeria. To me this is outrageous,where i live here it is not the case i hope people will say i shouldnt compare but i want you to know that there is nothing ABN AMRO is doing that uba cannot do.

@NBA

I must commend you. This is a brilliant thread.
I am actually thinking of opening an account with vetiva.
Can you please advise me on their execution time for orders?
Do they execute orders on the same day?
What are their charges like?

moneytalk:

@ All

What are the minimum you can have to open a stock broking account in Naija, is there any stock brokers that takes #100,000:00 for account opening?

I know you can start a 100k acct with cashcraft, even less

moneytalk:

@ All

What are the minimum you can have to open a stock broking account in Naija, is there any stock brokers that takes #100,000:00 for account opening?

There are several that do but do ask for recommendations as some have been notorious for poor service. I am aware of Cashcraft and Crossword for N100,000
http://cashcraft.com/
http://www.crossworldsec.biz/

chokit:

Well,UBA may be good and smooth but i want you to be carefull of their rough edges.I have accounts with them as well they are even my brokers.Hence their exorbitant and unnecessary charges is what i don't like.For instance giving an instruction to them to transfer cash from one uba account to the other which i believe shouldnt attract charges they do charge.Or paying into your account from another city or withdrawing from another city in Nigeria. To me this is outrageous,where i live here it is not the case i hope people will say i shouldnt compare but i want you to know that there is nothing ABN AMRO is doing that uba cannot do.

@Chokit, you are correct about the charges, they are quite aggravating and they cannot produce a list of charges so one is informed beforehand. So far though, the convenience has outweighed the nuisance. I will check about the charges for transferring from one UBA account to another and even third party UBA accounts, I don't think they have been charging me. I do this myself online and it has been very convenient. Hopefully as more players enter this space the charges will disappear, Skye is waving charges if you maintain a minimum balance.

Temmie10:

@NBA

I must commend you. This is a brilliant thread.
I am actually thinking of opening an account with vetiva.
Can you please advise me on their execution time for orders?
Do they execute orders on the same day?
What are their charges like?

Thanks @Temmie10. I am a fan of your posts. 

Vetiva has been refreshingly professional and I am usually cautious about recommending a company. The execution has been on time, same day, all but one time that was missed and they made amends immediately. A contract note is issued immediately a transaction is completed and can be viewed online. I believe their fees are standard but will attach here for comparison.

I am still wondering about the quality of their analysis as I haven’t been with them long enough to see the results of their daily recommendations but they appear to be conservative. Attached is the last recommendation for your review.

I finally got a response from Cashcraft's customer service today on how to get money to them from the US for the Union Diagnostics private placement. A little late now that the private placement is closed but just incase anyone needs it in future, see below. It is missing the ABA number for Deutsche Bank though.

Ecobank Nigeria PLC Remittance Instruction

FOR USD INFLOWS

(By Order Party)
Mr. XYZ

(Intermediary Bank)
BKTRUS33
Deutsche Bank Trust Company America
60 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005

(Beneficiary's Bank)
ACCOUNT NUMBER : 04087350
ACCOUNT NAME :Ecobank Nigeria PLC

(Beneficiary / Customer)
59:/AC No.  ---------------------------
Name of Ecobank Customer -:Cashcraft Asset Management Ltd
Account Number: -1110216626

(Beneficiary Information)
70:/Being payment for --------------------------------------------

@NBA
Thanks a lot.
I am impressed by the vetiva samples and i will be taking up an account with them.
Whats the minimum capital to start an account with them?

Temmie10:

@NBA
Thanks a lot.
I am impressed by the vetiva samples and i will be taking up an account with them.
Whats the minimum capital to start an account with them?

Minimum is 1 million naira and it can be in cash or shares.

NBA,

Please do you know how to get the Vetiva account opening forms?

Thanks

This is my first post here but have been reading them regularly. I have the UBA NRN since this year and I use Afrinvest, ARM discovery funds, IBTC funds. So far, UBA is okay but their COT, and other charges na wa!but they seem at the time to be the only place to let me send money to someone without a UBA account online. I have because of their charges not funded the dorm account and savings which they keep bothering me to do. Personally, I wished GTB has a diaspora offering as they seem to be the best customer service bank from experiences my spouse has had banking with them from here (usa). I have transferred funds to all the above without incident. Afrinvest so far alright, always could do with more prompt executions.
The situation might improve with the broker recapitalizations as the bank affiliated ones will hopefully offer a one stop seamless shop for everything. Hope to hear more of other peoples experiences like diamond, oceanic, fidelity, phb all have diaspora products.

Mutu1

Please what is the minimum required to open an account with Afrinvest and what is their website?

Thanks

NBN,

I am currently trying to tie up a deal with Vevita, but I am still trying to compare their charges. I hope they dont charge too extravagant.(Broker fees)


Thanks

@donne4real,

To open an account with Afrivest who must be looking to #500,000 upward and there website is www.afrinvestwa.com
here is what i got from there sites:


Guide to opening account

Thank you for choosing Afrinvest West Africa as your Investment Broker. Please find below the steps to filling the account opening documents. You will need to print them, fill out, sign and send back to us at your earliest convenience.

Please note carefully, the following concerning the filling of the forms;

The CSCS form that is named “1 _ Particulars of shareholders” can be filled starting from the shareholders birth date.
For the Transfer Form, you need to fill out the transferee’s (Buyer’s) portion and also sign on the transferee’s signature column. If you have any problems filling this, you can just sign on all of them and fill just one out with your name and address so that we can help you fill out the rest ( you can print out as many as 10 of these)
The Afrinvest West Africa Account Opening Form is to enable us have more personal details about you
The following items will also be required for your submission to complete the account opening process.

2 copies of your passport photograph signed and dated at the back
A copy of your international passport or drivers license (originals should be made available for sighting)
Any Utility bill from your place of residence
Any proof of employment or source of income .

Hope this will do.

pplus:

NBN,

I am currently trying to tie up a deal with Vevita, but I am still trying to compare their charges. I hope they don't charge too extravagant.(Broker fees)


Thanks

i think its 2.4% to buy and 2.7% to sell

I have been with AFRINVEST W.A (formerly SECTRUST) and sent my share certificates to them for verification and got my CSCS and Clearing House number from them.I also have an online account with them and I'm about to send funds to my account to enable me place execution orders. They are ok but since they have lots of clientele you do not really get that one-to-one relationship with the Accounts Officer, but I am yet to measure their efficiency in terms of carrying out instructions.

Thanks Nicholas

donne4real:

NBA,

Please do you know how to get the Vetiva account opening forms?

Thanks

@donne4real

They email it to you. Here's the link.

https://vetiva.merchantsecure.com/howtoreachus.asp

UBA ACCOUNT CHARGES

Here is what I got from UBA.

Current account: COT (commission on turn over) charge of N5 per mille i.e. per N1000 plus VAT, monthly maintenance fee of N105 and debit interest charge, only applies when account is in debit.

Savings account: Usually does not attract charges, however, deposits of N50 000.00 and above attracts a charge of N5 per N1000.

Domiciliary account: Upon withdrawal from the account, a charge of 0.5% of amount plus VAT

I also heard from a friend that Zenith is also a good institution. Has grown to become very solid in the past years

Hi All,

Thanks for all the useful information. Has anyone used African Select - www.africanselect.com they claim to be able to help you buy shares in the African stock markets. I opened an account with them placed my order and and tried to contact them, neither the USA telephone number nor the email went through.
I also had an issue with the terms of the Cashcraft account included in their package. It seems to imply that I sign up to a credit arrangement that allows them buy share to the tune of 50% of my portfolio value and I had to pay for the cost within 30days at their stipulated interest rate. To that equated to compound credit = compounding debt. Was I being paranoid ?

NBA,
What rationle is behind the charges of 5 on every 1000 when 50000 deposited into a savings account ? It is a savings account that is what its meant for and i feel one should be able to deposite any amount one likes.This is stange,even upon withdrwal from the said account it will still attract charges na wah o.I dont understand this aggresive way of doing business.
I have visited the sites of Daimond and some other new banks there is no cot charge when paymnet is made into your account.

Everything is wrong with it when one still need to pay when withdrawing from another branch of the same bank.May be the uba staff in the house should be able to enlighting me.For me i have decided to move my account.One minus ten,uba should know it equals to nine.

NBA,
if you dont mind i will like you to give a link to the source of your findings i will like to mail him with my queries.Do you know that the staff in the branches are so difficult to deal with,because they dont pick call and even reply mails send to them.

chokit:

NBA,
What rationle is behind the charges of 5 on every 1000 when 50000 deposited into a savings account ? It is a savings account that is what its meant for and i feel one should be able to deposite any amount one likes.This is stange,even upon withdrwal from the said account it will still attract charges na wah o.I don't understand this aggresive way of doing business.
I have visited the sites of Daimond and some other new banks there is no cot charge when paymnet is made into your account.

Everything is wrong with it when one still need to pay when withdrawing from another branch of the same bank.May be the uba staff in the house should be able to enlighting me.For me i have decided to move my account.One minus ten,uba should know it equals to nine.

@chokit

I was just as shocked with the 5 on every 1000 for balances above 50,000 and I questioned it but have not gotten a response yet. Worse for me is I just paid in a lot of money there for the Union Diagnostics private placement so I am waiting to see what the charges will come to. It doesn't make sense to me and I hope it is an error.

chokit:

NBA,
if you don't mind i will like you to give a link to the source of your findings i will like to mail him with my queries.Do you know that the staff in the branches are so difficult to deal with,because they don't pick call and even reply mails send to them.

Sure, I will send an email to my account officer introducing you. I will Cc you.

This is my first post here but have been reading them regularly. I have the UBA NRN since this year and I use Afrinvest, ARM discovery funds, IBTC funds. So far, UBA is okay but their COT, and other charges na wa!but they seem at  the time to be the only place to let me send money to someone without a UBA account online. I have because of their charges not funded the dorm account and savings which they keep bothering me to do. Personally, I wished GTB has a diaspora offering as they seem to be the best customer service bank from experiences my spouse has had banking with them from here (usa). I have transferred funds to all the above without incident. Afrinvest so far alright, always could do with more prompt executions.
The situation might improve with the broker recapitalizations as the bank affiliated ones will hopefully offer a one stop seamless shop for everything. Hope to hear more of other peoples experiences like diamond, oceanic, fidelity, phb all have diaspora products.

@mutu1

I just completed the application process for the Diamond Reach account. It went smooth and was timely and I got an email saying my account details have been sent to me via courier. I will share my experience with them as I start to use it.

I am with you on GTB providing a diaspora offering, I inquired a while ago and they said they would at some point but nothing now. If I visit Naija anytime soon it will be on my To Do list to open an account with them.

Question, how do you send money to someone without a UBA account from your UBA NRN?

MoneyGram versus Western Union

What has been your experience?

I have used MoneyGram since last year and their rate has been quite good. For the 10 minute Dollar Service to Nigeria, $500 or less costs $9.99. The other party gets the money in US dollars with proper identification and a secret question and answer verification.

story tellers.