When Your Favourite Creator Tells You to Buy Dangote Shares, Who Is Responsible?

For years, Nigerians have trusted creators to tell them what to wear, where to eat, which phone to buy and which relationship mistake to avoid. Now that trust is moving into a more expensive area: the stock market. The Dangote Refinery public offer opened on September 14, giving social media creators a new subject to explain, promote and, in some cases, recommend to their audiences.

That shift matters because investment advice is different from lifestyle advice. If a creator recommends a bad restaurant, the financial damage might be the cost of lunch. If thousands of followers buy a stock because someone they trust told them it was a good idea, savings are involved.

The timing is especially interesting because the refinery’s public offer is one of the closely watched investment opportunities in Nigeria this year. The official IPO site says the offer opened on September 14 and will close on October 13. It also states that dividends are not guaranteed, share prices can rise or fall, and investors can lose some or all of their money. The Securities and Exchange Commission has separately told prospective investors to read the approved prospectus and seek guidance from registered stockbrokers or investment advisers.

That creates an obvious gap between financial education and financial influence. A creator explaining what an IPO is, how the Dangote offer works or where to find the official prospectus is providing useful information. A creator telling followers that they should buy the shares is moving much closer to investment advice, especially when the creator’s audience may assume that the recommendation has been professionally assessed.

Nigerian regulators are already paying attention to this problem. In May, the SEC warned the public against relying on investment advisories circulated online by unregistered persons or entities. It said only entities registered by the Commission are authorised to promote investment services, provide investment advisory services or solicit funds from the public in the Nigerian capital market.

The creator’s intentions do not remove the risk. A person may genuinely believe Dangote Refinery is a strong investment and still lack the training, access to information or professional responsibility required to make that judgement for thousands of strangers. A large following also says nothing about whether someone understands valuation, risk, portfolio construction or an investor’s personal circumstances.

There is another issue that makes social media different from a traditional financial adviser. Creators can earn money from brand deals, affiliate relationships, referral arrangements or promotional campaigns, and the audience may not always know what sits behind the recommendation. The SEC’s warnings around social media investment promotions show why disclosure and authorisation matter when financial products move through creator platforms. Its IPO notice now tells investors to ignore unsolicited social media messages and use only approved subscription channels.

The responsibility therefore has two sides. Investors cannot outsource their judgement to a creator simply because they like that person’s content. Putting money into a stock remains the investor’s decision. At the same time, creators cannot treat a specific investment recommendation as harmless entertainment when their influence can move people towards a financial product. The bigger their audience and the more direct the solicitation, the more serious that responsibility becomes.

Dangote’s IPO may be a useful test of how Nigeria’s creator economy handles this new role. Creators can help first-time investors understand capital markets, explain financial language and direct followers towards official information. They can make investing less intimidating without pretending to know what an individual should buy.

So, when your favourite creator tells you to buy Dangote shares, who is responsible? The investor still owns the decision and the risk that comes with it. But the creator should own the responsibility of knowing when content has crossed into financial promotion or advice, and of making that distinction clear before an audience turns a recommendation into a transaction.

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