They prolly didn’t teach you this in school
A mutual fund’s return, relative to the risk free rate in Nigeria, actually any country the fund operates in, should tell you well enough about its risk profile, you know, how risky the assets in it are.
In Nigeria, for instance, the CBN’s 364-day Treasury bill auction stop rate was 15.85% as of October 7, 2026.
So, if a fund is returning 20% annually, you should be asking what risks you’re taking to earn that extra 4.15 percentage points above the bill rate.
The higher the risk, the higher the return you are expected to demand for taking it on (explains why loan apps charge “ridiculous” rates, cos they’re loaning without collateral, odikwa very risky)
The risk-free rate is your benchmark. It represents the return you can earn with minimal credit risk, typically proxied by government backed securities in a country. Of course, this is a starting point, not a complete measure of risk. You still need to consider volatility, liquidity, credit risk and the fund’s underlying assets.
But never look at returns in isolation.