The funds, which include the UBA Money Market Fund, UBA Bond Fund, UBA Balanced Fund and the UBA Equity Fund, rewarded unit holder with 7.5 kobo, five kobo and 5.5 kobo respectively.

The fund manager, Mr. Haruna Jalo-Waziri, said the fund was able to reward its unit holders because its resources were effectively managed to ensure that stakeholders' interest was taking care of.

He said the risk profile of investments in the equities market makes it important for investors in mutual funds to have well diversified portfolio.

The fund manager noted that despite the situation in the capital market, its equity fund out-performed the Nigerian Stock Exchange's All-share index.

He stated that the fund manager has mapped out strategies, which include making its equity fund active.

Reacting to the call by some unit holders for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve the appointment of audit committee for mutual funds, he explained that SEC is already doing the function of the audit committee.

He said: "It will amount to double standard. SEC is already doing the function of the audit committee and we so have the trustees, so appointing audit committee will amount to over protection.

"The foreign exchange market witnessed relative stability until November 2008 when the Naira started to slide against the dollar due to falling external reserve

"The money market ended the first quarter of 2009 on a tight note with attendant increase in interest rate. The global economic and financial crisis contributed to the liquidity squeeze witnessed in the first quarter of 2009.

"Investors resorted to trading returns for safety, thus leading to high subscription level on government securities in spite of the low yield."

The Guardian Newspaper, Friday December 18, 2009.