7 Dividend-Paying Stocks in Nigeria to Watch in 2026

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Techloy

has curated this list based on an interview with a financial expert, this article is not intended to serve as financial advice. Rates and fee terms are subject to change, so we encourage readers to independently verify all terms before committing to any stock brokerage platform.

Dividend investing sounds simple enough. Buy shares in a company, hold them, and get a portion of its profits as cash.

But not every stock that pays a dividend is a good investment, and a high yield can sometimes hide bigger risks.

To understand what investors should look for, we spoke with Opeyemi Ogunsanya, a web developer and finance content creator, about how to assess dividend stocks and the Nigerian shares worth watching in 2026.

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What Makes a Dividend Stock Worth Buying

Before we get to the list, Ogunsanya shared how he screens a company before investing. "The first thing I check is the company's dividend history over the last five to 10 years," he explained, adding that he can accept three years for a newer stock.

He also has a personal cutoff for yield. His minimum is 7%, because that number lets him recover his original investment through dividends alone within five to seven years, while the share price hopefully grows too.

But a high yield alone doesn’t mean the dividend is safe. Ogunsanya warned that some companies pay dividends from retained earnings instead of from what they made that year, which is a red flag. He also looks closely at the sector the company sits in and how strong its retained earnings are, since these tell you whether the payout can survive a bad year.

The Seven Stocks You Should Watch in 2026

Based on recent dividend history and performance, Ogunsanya named seven companies:

/1. GTCO

GTCO paid a total dividend of ₦12.76 per share for the 2025 financial year, made up of a ₦1.00 interim payout and an ₦11.76 final dividend, a 59% jump from the ₦8.03 paid in 2024. That’s the highest dividend ever declared by a Nigerian bank, and it works out to a yield near 10% even though profit dipped for the year.

/2. Zenith Bank

Zenith Bank doubled its payout for 2025, moving from ₦5.00 in 2024 to ₦10.00, split between a ₦1.25 interim and an ₦8.75 final dividend. This came after the bank posted about ₦1.04 trillion in profit after tax, and shareholders received roughly ₦410 billion in total.