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.
Using UBA’s numbers, the dividend headroom for 2025 is encouraging.
UBA earned N537.53 billion in the first nine months of 2025, already close to its N766.57 billion full-year profit for 2024.
Annualizing this puts 2025 profit in the N750–N800 billion range.
In 2024, UBA paid N5.00 per share (interim and final), a 79% increase, at a payout ratio of about 22%.
For 2025, it has only paid an interim dividend of N0.25, which absorbed just N10.26 billion, barely 3% of H1 profit.
If UBA maintains a payout close to 2024’s 22%, total dividends for 2025 would come in around N160–N180 billion and the final dividend of roughly N3.8–N4.05 per share.
At current prices, that would preserve UBA’s double-digit dividend yield, reinforcing its position as one of the strongest income stocks on the NGX going into 2026.
Other SWOOT companies:
- Okomu Oil: Dividend yield of 3.29% on the 2024 annual dividend of N36. In 2024, it has already paid a total interim dividend of N40
- Presco: Dividend yield of 2.9% on 20224 annual dividend of N42. The company has already paid N30 interim dividends for the 2025 financial year.
