The United Kingdom has mentioned 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 mentioned deeper monetary cooperation between each international locations could assist channel funding into companies and infrastructure whereas strengthening financial ties.
The United Kingdom has mentioned 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, protecting 2026 to 2036, alongside a National Savings Scheme geared toward mobilising home assets to assist funding and financial growth.
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, mentioned 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 mentioned the roadmap would assist mobilise extra home and worldwide funding by connecting capital with industrial 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 mentioned 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, mentioned the masterplan would assist deepen Nigeria’s capital markets to the size required to finance the nation’s financial ambitions.
He pressured that capital markets play a essential function 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 mentioned.
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 anticipated to assist efforts to mobilise native financial savings and direct extra funds in the direction of productive sectors of the financial system, decreasing reliance on exterior financing.
FSD Africa highlights funding alternatives
Mark Napier, CEO of FSD Africa, mentioned the masterplan was designed to make sure that capital market growth 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 mentioned.
Napier pointed to FSD Africa’s work in Zambia and Ethiopia, the place assist for monetary market growth and efforts to handle regulatory and market constraints helped set up situations for larger capital mobilisation, together with funding in renewable power.
FSD Africa’s assist for Nigeria has targeted on connecting capital market growth with wider financial priorities, together with infrastructure, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), monetary inclusion and sustainable growth.
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, power, local weather resilience, SMEs, monetary inclusion and job creation.
- The proposed reforms embrace measures to make it simpler for companies and state governments to lift capital, develop retail and diaspora participation, entice overseas institutional buyers and strengthen sustainable finance.
- The roadmap additionally gives 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: enhancing 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 general exercise completion charge of 63%, in keeping with the doc.
- While the sooner programme supported a number of reforms, additional progress was recognized as essential 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 way of larger cooperation with different international locations, cross-border capital elevating and itemizing preparations, and nearer alignment with initiatives beneath the African Continental Free Trade Area.
The success of the plan will depend upon efficient implementation, regulatory coordination and the power to draw extra buyers and issuers into the market over the subsequent decade.
