Amaechi Raphael Chinedu

@Official_ARC·2h

NGX Group spends about ₦50 to earn every ₦100. Here's the ratio that tells you that

The company that runs the stock exchange is also one of its most actively traded stocks today. $NGXGROUP's nine-month results are a good way to learn one of the most useful ratios on the NGX: cost-to-income. The idea is simple. Take a company's operating costs and divide them by its total income. The answer tells you how many naira it spends to bring in every ₦100. Lower means leaner. Banks quote this ratio all the time, but it works for any business. Here's NGX Group for the nine months to September 2026, from its results filed in October: • Total income rose 64.8% to ₦29.57bn • Operating costs rose 56.8% to ₦14.71bn • So the cost-to-income ratio improved to 49.7%, from 52.3% a year earlier • Transaction fees more than doubled to ₦20.68bn as more investors traded • Profit after tax rose 86.4% to ₦14.69bn Because income grew faster than costs, more of each extra naira fell through to profit. That's why profit grew faster than income. Now zoom into the third quarter alone and the picture flips. Income grew, but costs grew faster: staff costs rose to ₦3.38bn from ₦1.63bn. The quarter's cost-to-income ratio rose to about 59%, from about 46% a year earlier, and quarterly profit after tax fell 7.1% to ₦4.33bn. Three things this ratio teaches: 1. Direction matters more than the level. A ratio that's falling over time usually means a business is growing more efficiently. 2. Check the latest quarter, not just the year to date. A strong nine months can hide a softer recent quarter. 3. Ask why costs moved. A one-off bonus is different from a cost base that keeps climbing. NGX Group's filing doesn't split out how much of the jump will repeat. Want to see how results season is moving the stocks you own? Add your portfolio on Gopexly and follow along. Not financial advice, just how the numbers work.