PEARL Awards Nigeria has unveiled nominees for its 2026 awards, with the annual ceremony scheduled for Sunday, November 29, at The Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The announcement was made by the organisation’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Tayo Orekoya, FCA, at a press conference in Lagos on October 20, as the awards body prepares to recognise outstanding corporate performance, leadership and contributions to the development of Nigeria’s capital market.
The 2026 edition, themed “Celebrating Excellence, Inspiring the Future,” will adopt a hybrid format, combining physical attendance with live streaming to enable participation by stakeholders across Nigeria and the diaspora.
The nominees cut across several sectors of the Nigerian economy, including banking, agriculture, consumer goods, oil and gas, insurance, healthcare, information and communications technology, and industrial goods.
Which companies are nominated for the 2026 PEARL Awards?
Among the nominees for the Sectoral Leadership Awards are Zenith Bank Plc, Wema Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Holdings Co. Plc in banking; Seplat Energy Plc, Aradel Holdings Plc and Eterna Plc in oil and gas; and BUA Foods Plc, Guinness Nigeria Plc and Cadbury Nigeria Plc in consumer goods.
Other nominees include Presco Plc and Okomu Oil Palm Plc in agriculture, Nigerian Exchange Group Plc in financial services, and CWG Plc in ICT.
In the Market Excellence category, companies will compete across financial and stock-market performance indicators, including turnover growth, earnings yield, return on equity, return on assets, dividend yield, dividend growth, current ratio, net asset ratio, profit margin ratio and share price appreciation.
For the Special Recognition Awards, First Securities Brokers Limited, Meristem Stockbrokers Limited and CardinalStone Securities Limited are nominated for Stockbroking Firm of the Year.
Rand Merchant Bank Limited, Chapel Hill Denham Advisory Limited and Meristem Capital Limited are competing for Issuing House of the Year, while Aradel Holdings Plc, Guinness Nigeria Plc and Okomu Oil Palm Plc are nominated for the Corporate Governance Award.
The identities of the winners in the competitive categories, including the recipient of the prestigious PEARL of the Nigerian Stock Market award, will be announced at the awards ceremony. Recipients of the Honorary Awards will also be unveiled at the event.
How PEARL Awards selects its nominees and winners
A key feature of the PEARL Awards is its research-driven approach to assessing corporate performance.
According to Orekoya, the awards’ assessment methodology is based on measurable financial and market performance rather than subjective considerations, corporate influence, sponsorship or popularity.
The assessment incorporates ten performance indices, including turnover growth, return on equity, earnings yield, share price appreciation, current ratio, return on assets, dividend yield, net asset ratio, dividend growth and profit margin ratio.
The data are obtained from published annual reports of quoted companies filed with Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), alongside relevant NGX Daily Official Lists.
The findings are then reviewed and verified by the Awards’ Technical Committee before being submitted to the Board of Governors for consideration and final approval.
The organisation says this process is intended to uphold fairness, transparency and objectivity while strengthening confidence in the recognition of corporate performance.
PEARL Awards and the development of Nigeria’s capital market
Established in 1995, PEARL Awards Nigeria has spent more than three decades promoting corporate excellence, healthy competition and sustainable value creation among companies quoted on the Nigerian stock market.
Beyond its annual awards ceremony, the organisation has expanded its activities to include the PEARL Awards Annual Corporate Summit and the publication Winning Strategies of Nigeria’s Corporate Giants, which documents leadership insights and business strategies from leading Nigerian companies.
The organisation also publishes the Nigerian Stock Market Annual, with the 2027 edition scheduled to be unveiled at the forthcoming awards ceremony.
At the press conference, Orekoya highlighted the importance of a stronger Nigerian capital market in supporting capital formation, wealth creation, enterprise development and economic transformation.
He also called for policy consistency, regulatory innovation, stronger corporate governance, greater market transparency and initiatives to broaden participation in the capital market.
The 2026 awards are expected to bring together corporate executives, investors, capital-market regulators and operators, policymakers, government representatives and members of the financial media.
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