Economy
Nigerians Trade $50bn Crypto in One Year, Spend $5.5m Daily on Betting
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Cryptocurrency valued at over $50 billion was transacted in Nigeria between July 2023 and June 2024, the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr Emomotimi Agama, has revealed.
He also disclosed that while fewer than three million Nigerians invest in the capital market, more than 60 million engage daily in gambling activities, spending an estimated $5.5 million every day.
While presenting a lead paper titled Evaluating the Nigerian Capital Market Masterplan 2015-2025 at the annual conference of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) the SEC DG said efforts must be made to attract investments in the traditional capital market.
He noted that the digital currency transactions flowed through Nigeria underscored the sophistication and risk tolerance of investors that the traditional market has yet to capture, stating that fewer than four percent of the country’s adult population are active investors.
Mr Agama described the low participation rate as a major impediment to economic growth and capital formation, saying, “This reveals a paradox, an appetite for risk clearly exists, but not the trust or access to channel that energy into productive investment.”
The SEC chief also lamented that Nigeria’s market capitalization-to-GDP ratio stands at about 30 per cent, far below South Africa’s 320 per cent, Malaysia’s 123 per cent, and India’s 92 per cent, a disparity he said highlights the urgent need to deepen financial inclusion and rebuild investor confidence.
Recalling the vision of the ten-year CMMP launched in 2015, he said it was designed to reposition Nigeria’s capital market as the engine of economic transformation by mobilizing long-term finance for infrastructure and enterprise development.
“Today, as we stand at the sunset of that ten-year plan, our task is not ceremonial; it is reflective and diagnostic. We must ask: what did we achieve, where did we fall short, and what lessons must anchor our next decade of reforms?” he queried.
Mr Agama disclosed that less than half of the 108 initiatives under the CMMP were fully achieved, blaming limited alignment with national development plans, inadequate tracking metrics, and weak stakeholder ownership for the shortfall.
Despite progress in areas such as Green Bonds, Sukuk, fintech integration, and non-interest finance, he said market liquidity remains concentrated in a few large-cap stocks like Airtel Africa, Dangote Cement, and MTN Nigeria.
Mr Agama, who listed six key challenges for the next phase of reforms, pointed at low retail participation, market concentration, falling foreign inflows, underutilized pension assets, untapped diaspora capital, and a widening infrastructure financing gap.
“Nigeria’s $150 billion annual infrastructure deficit far exceeds the market’s contribution, with only N1.5 trillion approved in PPP bonds. This shows a misalignment between financial innovation and national priorities,” he observed.
The DG called for a “reimagined SEC” that serves as both regulator and enabler of private-sector-driven growth, and added the next decade must focus on trust-building, transparency, and inclusion, declaring that, “Vision without execution is inertia — and reform without measurement is aspiration without accountability.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is seeking a reduction in import duty exemptions, which rose to N34 trillion, limiting its ability to increase its revenue generation threshold.
The Comptroller-General of the Customs Service, Mr Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed that the value of import duty exemption certificate approvals increased to that level in 2025, describing the policy as one of the major factors restricting its revenue generation.
At an investigative session of the Senate Committee on Finance with revenue-generating agencies in Abuja on Monday, Mr Adeniyi explained that government fiscal policies have continued to impact the revenue-generating capacity of the Customs Service, both positively and negatively.
“The NCS would have generated significantly higher revenue over the years if not for government-approved import duty waivers and other external factors affecting collections,” he said.
He added that the Import Duty Exemption Certificate scheme, introduced in March 2020, accounted for about N34 trillion in approvals in 2025, with nearly 60 per cent covering duty-free importation of military hardware due to Nigeria’s prevailing security challenges.
Other government-backed duty waivers, he noted, covered the importation of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), electric and hybrid vehicles, healthcare equipment and medical supplies, industrial machinery and manufacturing inputs, as well as food import intervention programmes.
While acknowledging the impact of the waivers on Customs revenue, Mr Adeniyi argued that fiscal policy should not be assessed solely on the basis of revenue generation but also on its broader economic and social objectives.
He, however, urged the federal government to establish stronger monitoring mechanisms to ensure beneficiaries of duty waivers deliver the intended economic outcomes, including lower consumer prices, increased local production and improved healthcare access.
The committee also expressed displeasure over the absence of several heads of government agencies invited to the hearing, including the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Industrial Training Fund (ITF), and the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Mr Sani Musa, warned that the affected chief executives must appear at the committee’s next sitting or face severe sanctions under the Senate’s rules.
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By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange rose by 0.40 per cent on Monday, July 13, buoyed by buying interest in 11 Plc, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc and UBN Property Plc, which offset the profit-taking in Food Concepts Plc, the parent company of Chicken Republic.
11 Plc gained N20.69 to end at N227.64 per share compared with last Friday’s price of N206.95 per share, CSCS Plc grew by N1.83 to N91.48 per unit from N89.65 per unit, and UBN Property Plc added 1 Kobo to sell at N1.81 per share versus N1.80 per share.
On the flip side, Food Concepts Plc depreciated by 24 Kobo to close at N2.45 per unit, in contrast to the preceding session’s N2.69 per unit.
As a result, the market capitalisation increased by N9.2 billion to N2.587 trillion from N2.578 trillion, and the NASD Security Index (NSI) improved by 15.33 points to 4,311.67 points from 4,296.34 points.
Yesterday, the volume of securities traded by investors surged by 615.9 per cent to 9.1 million units from the previous 1.3 million units, and the value of securities rose by 997.1 per cent to N320.4 million from the preceding session’s N29.2 million, while the number of deals decreased by 12.5 per cent to 28 deals from last Friday’s 32 deals.
At the close of trades, Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units valued at N8.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units worth N6.5 billion, and CSCS Plc with 73.9 million units exchanged for N5.2 billion.
GNI Plc also closed the session as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units sold for N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units traded for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units transacted for N415.7 million.
