The United Kingdom has stated Nigeria’s efforts to strengthen its capital markets could unlock new funding alternatives, create jobs and promote shared prosperity in each international locations as Nigeria launches a 10-year roadmap to mobilise home and worldwide capital.
The UK stated deeper monetary cooperation between each international locations could assist channel funding into companies and infrastructure whereas strengthening financial ties.
The United Kingdom has stated Nigeria’s efforts to strengthen its capital markets could unlock new funding alternatives, create jobs and promote shared prosperity in each international locations as Nigeria launches a 10-year roadmap to mobilise home and worldwide capital.
The remarks got here as Nigeria launched the Nigeria Capital Market Masterplan 2.0, overlaying 2026 to 2036, alongside a National Savings Scheme aimed toward mobilising home sources to assist funding and financial improvement.
The launch was attended by Vice President Kashim Shettima, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Taiwo Oyedele, Vowles and Mark Napier, Chief Executive Officer of FSD Africa.
The masterplan units out reforms to construct a extra diversified, environment friendly and clear capital market, strengthen Nigeria’s place as a regional monetary hub and assist the nation’s ambition to develop a $1 trillion financial system.
UK backs Nigeria’s capital market reforms
British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Pete Vowles, stated the UK was proud to have funded FSD Africa’s technical assist for the event of the brand new masterplan, describing it as an formidable, Nigerian-led reform initiative.
He stated the roadmap would assist mobilise extra home and worldwide funding by connecting capital with business alternatives in companies and infrastructure.
- “By strengthening Nigeria’s capital markets and deepening links between our financial sectors, we can create new opportunities for investment, jobs and shared prosperity in both our countries,” Vowles stated in an announcement delivered by Paul Healey, Head of Green Growth and Private Sector Development on the British High Commission.
The assist types a part of the broader UK-Nigeria Strategic Partnership, which prioritises financial progress and job creation.
According to the High Commissioner, stronger capital markets and nearer hyperlinks between each international locations’ monetary sectors could generate alternatives for funding and employment whereas supporting prosperity in Nigeria and the UK.
SEC targets stronger capital market
The Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dr Emomotimi Agama, stated the masterplan would assist deepen Nigeria’s capital markets to the dimensions required to finance the nation’s financial ambitions.
He burdened that capital markets play a crucial position in changing family financial savings into productive investments that assist companies, infrastructure and employment.
- “Every great economy has, at its heart, a capital market that turns the savings of ordinary people into the factories, roads, homes and businesses that create jobs. Nigeria has the people, the enterprise and the ambition. What we are now building is a market to match them,” Agama stated.
He defined that the simultaneous launch of the masterplan and the National Savings Scheme was meant to strengthen the hyperlink between home financial savings and funding.
- “Savings are the raw material of investment, and a nation that saves through its own capital market builds with its own resources,” he added.
The initiative is predicted to assist efforts to mobilise native financial savings and direct extra funds in the direction of productive sectors of the financial system, lowering reliance on exterior financing.
FSD Africa highlights funding alternatives
Mark Napier, CEO of FSD Africa, stated the masterplan was designed to make sure that capital market improvement interprets into broader financial advantages.
- “Our support for Nigeria’s new Masterplan is grounded in the principle that capital markets need to work for the wider economy. With its scale and regional importance, Nigeria has a significant opportunity to mobilise more domestic and international capital towards businesses, infrastructure and sustainable growth,” he stated.
Napier pointed to FSD Africa’s work in Zambia and Ethiopia, the place assist for monetary market improvement and efforts to handle regulatory and market constraints helped set up circumstances for larger capital mobilisation, together with funding in renewable vitality.
FSD Africa’s assist for Nigeria has centered on connecting capital market improvement with wider financial priorities, together with infrastructure, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), monetary inclusion and sustainable improvement.
What the 10-year roadmap seeks to attain
The Nigeria Capital Market Masterplan 2.0 seeks to place the capital market as a serious driver of financial transformation by directing long-term funding in the direction of infrastructure, vitality, local weather resilience, SMEs, monetary inclusion and job creation.
- The proposed reforms embrace measures to make it simpler for companies and state governments to boost capital, develop retail and diaspora participation, appeal to overseas institutional traders and strengthen sustainable finance.
- The roadmap additionally supplies for the event of digital and tokenised belongings as a part of efforts to diversify monetary devices and broaden funding alternatives.
- It is structured round 5 pillars: bettering regulatory readability and enforcement, modernising market infrastructure, broadening the vary of issuers and monetary devices, diversifying the investor base, and strengthening institutional {and professional} capability.
Each pillar is supported by an implementation framework outlining obligations, timelines and efficiency measures.
Building on earlier reforms
The new masterplan builds on the earlier Nigeria Capital Market Masterplan, which recorded an total exercise completion price of 63%, in response to the doc.
- While the sooner programme supported a number of reforms, additional progress was recognized as vital in monetary inclusion, regional integration, sustainable finance and the mobilisation of capital for precedence sectors.
- The new roadmap seeks to handle these gaps whereas strengthening Nigeria’s capability to draw long-term home and worldwide funding.
- It additionally goals to develop Nigeria’s affect in African monetary markets by means of larger cooperation with different international locations, cross-border capital elevating and itemizing preparations, and nearer alignment with initiatives underneath the African Continental Free Trade Area.
The success of the plan will depend upon efficient implementation, regulatory coordination and the power to draw extra traders and issuers into the market over the following decade.
