The director-general of the Securities and Change Fee (SEC), Dr Emomotimi Agama, has disclosed that, over $50 billion value of cryptocurrency transactions flowed by way of Nigeria between July 2023 and June 2024, underscoring the sophistication and threat tolerance of traders that the standard market has but to seize.
Agama, in a lead paper titled ‘Evaluating the Nigerian Capital Market Masterplan 2015-2025′ offered on the annual convention of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), raised concern over Nigerians’ alarmingly low participation within the conventional capital market, revealing that fewer than 4 per cent of the nation’s grownup inhabitants are energetic traders.
He described the low participation price as a major obstacle to financial progress and capital formation.
He famous that whereas fewer than three million Nigerians spend money on the capital market, greater than 60 million interact in day by day playing actions, spending an estimated $5.5 million. This paradox reveals a clearly current threat urge for food however not the belief or entry to a channel that channels power into productive funding.
Agama additionally lamented that Nigeria’s market capitalisation-to-GDP ratio stands at about 30 per cent, far under South Africa’s 320 per cent, Malaysia’s 123 per cent, and India’s 92 per cent. He stated this disparity highlights the pressing have to deepen monetary inclusion and rebuild investor confidence.
Recalling the imaginative and prescient of the ten-year CMMP launched in 2015, the SEC boss stated it was designed to reposition Nigeria’s capital market because the engine of financial transformation by mobilising long-term finance for infrastructure and enterprise improvement.
Agama disclosed that lower than half of the 108 initiatives below the CMMP have been absolutely achieved, blaming restricted alignment with nationwide improvement plans, insufficient monitoring metrics, and weak stakeholder possession for the shortfall.
Regardless of progress in areas resembling Inexperienced Bonds, Sukuk, fintech integration, and non-interest finance, he stated market liquidity stays concentrated in just a few large-cap shares like Airtel Africa, Dangote Cement, and MTN Nigeria.
Agama listed six key challenges for the following section of reforms: low retail participation, market focus, falling overseas inflows, underutilised pension property, untapped diaspora capital, and a widening infrastructure financing hole.
“Nigeria’s $150 billion annual infrastructure deficit far exceeds the market’s contribution, with solely N1.5 trillion authorized in PPP bonds. This reveals a misalignment between monetary innovation and nationwide priorities,” he noticed.
The DG referred to as for a ‘reimagined SEC’ that serves as each regulator and enabler of private-sector-driven progress, and added that the following decade should deal with trust-building, transparency, and inclusion.
