Economy
Commercial Real Estate Funding Rises in Francophone Africa
By Dipo Olowookere
The bilingual Francoreal Property Investment Summit taking place on October 16 & 17, 2018 in Dakar, Senegal is expected to provide a platform for the region and continent’s premier real estate investors and developers to gauge opportunities in one of the world’s fastest growing zones – known colloquially as Francophone West and Central Africa, organisers have said.
Providing macroeconomic and currency stability; through the West African Monetary Union (UEMOA) regional block, this integrated and increasingly developed region has multiple competitive economic advantages according to the Chairman of BHCI, JD Diabira, the region’s first specialist commercial real estate mortgage provider and local real estate advisor, Ivan Cornet of Latitude Five.
As two of 30 confirmed high-level speakers for the forum, the two-day conference has been brought to market in partnership with Teyliom, the region’s largest investor and developer in real estate.
For Cornet, who has spent the past decade driving the development of commercial property from his base in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, this forum provides a platform for local, regional and international delegates to learn, network and strike deals.
“I’ve been sharing Francophone Africa’s story at African real estate’s most significant event; the African Property investment (API) Summit for the past decade. And now, they are hosting a high-value conference backed by the largest investor and some of the most high profile names in the region,” he says.
While Abidjan has been a focus for investors due to its role as the commercial port and gateway into Francophone West Africa, Senegal’s emergence driven by its investment into infrastructure and real estate has placed it on par with its larger neighbour explains Cornet.
“A few years ago, Abidjan was the only market for outside investors, but the two-billion-dollar plus investment into Dakar’s Diamiadio City, proactive government policy moves and robust GDP figures, makes it a very attractive and stable market politically.”
The opportunity to obtain 10% yields across different sectors has made Francophone Africa attractive for Cornet compared to Europe. Despite, his successes, he believes that rapidly improving fundamentals, and particularly access to funding, will lead to a measured climb in investment.
For specialist mortgage provider, JD Diabira of BHCI (CEO), who is part of a new wave of lenders providing tailored and suitable loan structures to mostly African developers in the region – the massive demand has been welcoming and overwhelming.
“The number of bankable projects is not a problem we are bursting with projects, and we have not even engaged in much marketing outreach yet,” he says, 80% of which are locally driven.
Adding that “While the market is still modest, it is growing at a faster clip than the rest of the world and we are also seeing local institutional investors shifting away from direct equity investments and into debt-funded real estate transactions. For me, that’s a sign of new market sophistication.”
While demand remains high, access to funding remains a challenge in the market; but the difficulty is not a result of what people think, as he explains. “The lack of capital isn’t the big issue it’s made out to be,” as he points to the number of significant successful capital raises in the market.
Rather, Diabira says “It seems to us the real problem is the willingness (or not) of lenders to lend.”
The reason, he says is that local lenders have had little reason to offer mortgages; which has been attributed to the high prevalence of government bonds in the market which banks have collected 6-7% for a “plain value zero-risk bond”, he adds.
And while this “1940 ‘s style French Prefecture culture” persists, Diabira believes specialist firms and new pan-African banks entering the market will be successful in their projects and also aid in deepening the market. “Fortunately this is not a problem specialist lenders, like ourselves, have. We lend because it’s what we do, and it’s the only thing we do,” he adds.
And while the local market continues to evolve and develop driven by demand and new skills, international developers are typically funded by their countries of origin says Diabira.
“We are a local lender (albeit with a small Canadian parent), run by Africans. We are local and are more interested in getting Africans funded across the UMEOA region.”
For the host of the Francoreal Summit, API Events Managing Director KfirRusin, the event is a uniquely high-level conference and the response has been tremendous.
“The local market, together with our strong base of multi-billion dollar pan-Africa funds, private equity partners and developers are excited about this region. We believe this bilingual event will result in new partnerships and a flurry of deal making across the region.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
The domestic supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, from the Dangote Refinery increased by 64.4 percent in December 2025, contributing to an enhancement in Nigeria’s overall petrol availability.
This is according to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in its December 2025 Factsheet Report released on Thursday.
The downstream regulatory agency revealed that the private refinery raised its domestic petrol supply from 19.47 million litres per day in November 2025 to an average of 32.012 million litres per day in December, as it quelled any probable fuel scarcity associated with the festive month.
The report attributed the improvement to more substantial capacity utilisation at the Lagos-based oil facility, which reached a peak of 71 per cent in December.
The increased output from Dangote Refinery contributed to a rise in Nigeria’s total daily domestic PMS supply to 74.2 million litres in December, up from 71.5 million litres per day recorded in November.
The authority also reported a sharp increase in petrol consumption, rising to 63.7 million litres per day in December 2025, up from 52.9 million litres per day in the previous month.
In contrast, the domestic supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) known as diesel declined to 17.9 million litres per day in December from 20.4 million litres per day in November, even as daily diesel consumption increased to 16.4 million litres per day from 15.4 million litres per day.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) supply recorded modest growth during the period, rising to 5.2 metric tonnes per day in December from 5.0 metric tonnes per day in November.
Despite the gains recorded by Dangote Refinery and modular refineries, the NMDPRA disclosed that Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries recorded zero production in December.
It said the Port Harcourt Refinery remained shut down, though evacuation of diesel produced before May 24, 2025, averaged 0.247 million litres per day. The Warri and Kaduna refineries also remained shut down throughout the period.
On modular refineries, the report said Waltersmith Refinery (Train 2 with 5,000 barrels per day) completed pre-commissioning in December, with hydrocarbon introduction expected in January 2026. The refinery recorded an average capacity utilisation of 63.24 per cent and an average AGO supply of 0.051 million litres per day
Edo Refinery posted an average capacity utilisation of 85.43 per cent with AGO supply of 0.052 million litres per day, while Aradel recorded 53.89 per cent utilisation and supplied an average of 0.289 million litres per day of AGO.
Total AGO supply from the three modular refineries averaged 0.392 million litres per day, with other products including naphtha, heavy hydrocarbon kerosene (HHK), fuel oil, and marine diesel oil (MDO).
The report listed Nigeria’s 2025 daily consumption benchmarks as 50 million litres per day for petrol, 14 million litres per day for diesel, 3 million litres per day for aviation fuel (ATK), and 3,900 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.
Actual daily truck-out consumption in December stood at 63.7 million litres per day for petrol, 16.4 million litres per day for diesel, 2.7 million litres per day for ATK and 4,380 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has introduced a comprehensive revision of minimum capital requirements for nearly all capital market operators, marking the most significant overhaul since 2015.
The changes, outlined in a circular issued on January 16, 2026, obtained from its website on Friday, replace the previous regime. Operators have been given until June 30, 2027, to comply.
The SEC stated that the reforms aim to strengthen market resilience, enhance investor protection, discourage undercapitalised operators, and align capital adequacy with the evolving risk profile of market activities.
According to the circular, “The revised framework applies to brokers, dealers, fund managers, issuing houses, fintech firms, digital asset operators, and market infrastructure providers.”
Some of the key highlights of the new reforms include increment of minimum capital for brokers from N200 million to N600 million while for dealers, it was raised to N1 billion from N100 million.
For broker-dealers, they are to get N2 billion instead of the previous N300 million, reflecting multi-role exposure across trading, execution, and margin lending.
The agency said fund and portfolio managers with assets above N20 billion must hold N5 billion, while mid-tier managers must maintain N2 billion with private equity and venture capital firms to have N500 million and N200 million, respectively.
There was also dynamic rule as firms managing assets above N100 billion must hold at least 10 per cent of assets under management as capital.
“Digital asset firms, previously in a regulatory grey area, are now fully covered: digital exchanges and custodians must maintain N2 billion each, while tokenisation platforms and intermediaries face thresholds of N500 million to N1 billion. Robo-advisers must hold N100 million.
“Other segments are also affected: issuing houses offering full underwriting services must hold N7 billion, advisory-only firms N2 billion, registrars N2.5 billion, trustees N2 billion, underwriters N5 billion, and individual investment advisers N10 million. Market infrastructure providers carry some of the highest obligations, with composite exchanges and central counterparties required to maintain N10 billion each, and clearinghouses N5 billion,” the SEC added.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The founder and chief executive of Austin Laz and Company Plc, Mr Asimonye Austin Lazarus Azubuike, has sold off about 52.24 million shares of the organisation.
The stocks were offloaded in 11 tranches at an average price of N4.36 per unit, amounting to about N227.8 million.
The transactions occurred between December 2025 and January 2026, according to a notice filed by the company to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Friday.
Business Post reports that Austin Laz is known for producing ice block machines, aluminium roofing, thermoplastics coolers, PVC windows and doors, ice cream machines, and disposable plates.
The firm evolved from refrigeration sales to diverse manufacturing since its incorporation in 1982 in Benin City, Edo State, though facing recent operational halts.
According to the statement signed by company secretary, Ifeanyi Offor & Associates, Mr Azubuike first sold 1.5 million units of the equities at N2.42, and then offloaded 2.4 million units at N2.65, and 2.0 million units at N2.65.
In another tranche, he sold another 2.0 million units at a unit price of N2.91, and then 5.0 million units at N3.52, as well as about 4.5 million at N3.87 per share.
It was further disclosed that the owner of the company also sold 9.0 million shares at N4.25, and offloaded another 368,411 units at N4.66, then in another transaction sold about 6.9 million units at N4.67.
In the last two transactions he carried out, Mr Azubuike first traded 10.0 million units equities at N5.13, with the last being 8.5 million stocks sold at N5.64 per unit.
-
Feature/OPED6 years agoDavos was Different this year
-
Travel/Tourism9 years ago
Lagos Seals Western Lodge Hotel In Ikorodu
-
Showbiz3 years agoEstranged Lover Releases Videos of Empress Njamah Bathing
-
Banking8 years agoSort Codes of GTBank Branches in Nigeria
-
Economy3 years agoSubsidy Removal: CNG at N130 Per Litre Cheaper Than Petrol—IPMAN
-
Banking3 years agoFirst Bank Announces Planned Downtime
-
Banking3 years agoSort Codes of UBA Branches in Nigeria
-
Sports3 years agoHighest Paid Nigerian Footballer – How Much Do Nigerian Footballers Earn