Nigeria’s stock market surged by over 51% YtD in 2025, with twenty-two SWOOT (Stocks Worth Over One Trillion) Naira companies recording an average share price YtD gain of 69%.
Among the SWOOTs; Presco, MTNN, International Breweries, Okomu Oil, Nigerian Breweries and Nestle recorded triple-digit share price growth
While this is impressive, the gains can only be realized when you sell your holdings, which means that these returns aren’t always accessible immediately.
This is where dividends come in.
Investors in equities earn returns through two main streams: capital gains and dividend income. Capital gains refer to the price difference between when you purchase a stock and when you sell it.
Dividend income, on the other hand, is the portion of a company’s profit that it shares with its shareholders.
Several SWOOT companies pay reliable dividends. While companies like Dangote Cement and BUA Foods pay only final dividends, banks, Seplat, Okomu, and Presco pay interim and final dividends, with Seplat paying quarterly.
Okomu and Presco have already paid two interim dividends and are expected to pay a final dividend based on their 2025 full-year results.
What matters most is dividend yield; how much cash investors earn for every naira invested—alongside dividend size, growth, and payout sustainability.
A higher dividend yield indicates that you’re earning more in dividends for each N1 you invest.
That said, here are five dividend stocks to consider taking a position in this January, with the banking sector dominating in terms of yield.
Stanbic earned N278.48 billion in the first nine months of 2025, already higher than the N225 billion it made in the whole of 2024.
Annualizing this, it puts 2025 profit in the N370–N380 billion range, assuming Q4 tracks the average of the first three quarters.
In 2024, Stanbic paid N5.00 per share (interim and final), a 34% increase, at a payout ratio of about 29%.
For 2025, it has paid an interim dividend of N2.5, higher than the N2 paid in 2024, which is about 14% of the nine-month profit
If it maintains a payout close to 2024, 35%, total dividends for 2025 would come in around N130-N133 billion, implying a final dividend of about N4.50 per share.
The stock had a strong run last year, rising by 74%, and it still paid investors about 5% of its share price in dividends.
With the higher dividend expected in 2025, investors buying at today’s prices could earn more than 6% a year in cash income.
