There’s a common assumption that diversification is a strategy for cautious, low-growth investors — something you do once your portfolio is already large and stable. In emerging and frontier markets, the opposite is often true: the more volatile the operating environment, the more diversification matters, not less.

A single-sector concentration — all real estate, or all equities — leaves an investor exposed to whatever specific shock hits that sector: a regulatory shift, a currency movement, a local demand slowdown. Spreading capital across asset classes and, where possible, geographies doesn’t eliminate risk, but it changes the shape of it — a downturn in one area doesn’t have to mean a downturn across the whole portfolio.

For Nigerian investors specifically, this often means balancing exposure between local real estate opportunities, which benefit from direct market knowledge, and trading positions that offer more liquidity and international exposure.

De’mill’s investment advisory team works with clients to build portfolios structured around this principle — long-term resilience, not just short-term return chasing.