Amaechi Raphael Chinedu

@Official_ARC·3h

The NGX itself is making record money. Here's the ratio that shows how efficiently

Nigerian Exchange Group just reported its nine-month results, and they ride the same wave you've been seeing on the market: pre-tax profit up 83.3% to ₦20.6bn, and transaction fees more than doubled to ₦20.7bn as more investors traded more often. But one of the most useful numbers in the release is a ratio, not a profit figure: the cost-to-income ratio. How it works: 1. Cost-to-income ratio = operating expenses ÷ total income. It tells you how much of every naira earned goes to running the business. 2. For $NGXGROUP in 9M 2026: ₦14.71bn ÷ ₦29.57bn ≈ 49.7%. That's roughly 50 kobo of costs for every ₦1 of income. 3. A year ago: ₦9.38bn ÷ ₦17.95bn ≈ 52.3%. Lower is leaner. Over nine months, income grew faster than costs, so the ratio improved. Now the twist: look at the third quarter alone and the picture flips. Revenue rose 36%, but operating expenses rose 63%, with staff costs doubling as bonuses caught up with the windfall. The quarter's ratio worsened to about 59% from 46%, and Q3 net profit fell 7%. That's why it helps to check this ratio across periods, not just once. You'll see it most often in bank and exchange results, and it's a quick way to tell whether growth is coming with discipline on costs. Do you check costs when you read results, or mostly profit? Tell us below 👇 Not financial advice.