GTR West Africa returns to Lagos, Nigeria on April 16-17, 2024, to once again bring together the leading minds in West African trade, supply chain, export and infrastructure financing for two days of unrivalled networking and lively debate. Long established as the leading annual gathering for the region’s trade community, 2024’s edition will once again offer clarity on the impact of a turbulent…
One of the main benefits of a successful capital market is its ability to provide financing for important projects. Nigeria’s capital markets are no exception and are now regarded by a government keen to press ahead with a major programme of infrastructure development. According to Zainab Ahmed, the former minister of finance, the country needs around $2.3trn over the next 21 years to become a fully…
Interview: Tapas Das What is your assessment of capital markets amid the launch of exchange-traded derivatives (ETDs) on the Nigerian Exchange? TAPAS DAS: Nigeria’s capital markets were primarily client identification-based, whereby trades were executed on the client level. In contrast, the omnibus model used by Western counterparts permits managed trades of more than one person by a broker and…
While recent years have seen many more established capital markets in the red, Nigeria’s capital markets have shown positive growth. At the close of 2022 the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) had a 19.9% return on investment, earning it the fourth best-performing index in the world, according to the MSCI-All Country World Index which tracks the performance of some 3000 stocks in 48 developed and emerging market…
A number of sub-Saharan African countries have sought to introduce taxes on electronic transactions in response to the sustained uptick prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic. While such moves have been met with criticism, they represent an opportunity to boost tax revenue. Public finances in the region have been affected over the last two years by the global economic crisis, which has eroded revenue from…
At a ceremony in Lagos on October 25, 2022, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) officials, government representatives and business leaders gathered to mark the one-year anniversary of the eNaira, Nigeria’s official digital currency and the first of its kind in Africa. At the ceremony, the central bank announced that the eNaira had been used in some 700,000 transactions worth around $18.3m since its introduction…
Banking has seen a major uptake in financial technology (fintech). The Covid-19 pandemic led to further development in the sector, with Nigeria experiencing the same global shift from physical workspaces to online ones. The pandemic also increased the need for Nigerian businesses and traders to find capital abroad, as foreign investors moved towards safer investments. Fintech has proven to be invaluable…
The Nigerian banking sector has seen robust growth in recent years despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rising inflation and exchange rate volatility. Driving this has been a combination of high-tech innovations from the financial technology (fintech) industry and a low-tech, traditional policy that has kept banks well capitalized and buffered against external…
Nigeria’s GDP growth decelerated in 2022 amid global headwinds, including elevated commodity prices and soaring inflation resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The IMF’s GDP growth projection of 3.2% for 2023 is in recognition of the measures Nigeria has undertaken to boost oil production. Nevertheless, the country’s medium-term economic plan, the National Development Plan (NDP) 202
While many Nigerian banks are likely to see greater profitability in 2023, they are still grappling with distressed legacy loans to oil, gas and power companies. Moreover, the cautious policies of financial institutions and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) are indicative of uncertainty in the global financial sector, reflected in continued caution in the policies at home. However, the CBN’s recent…
