Economy
Digital Wealth Managers Threaten Traditional Players’ Dominance—BCG Report
A report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has revealed that online platforms offering wealth management services and delivering faster customer growth, cheaper cost structures, and superior innovation, command a significant market premium, threatening the market dominance of traditional players.
According to the study, these digital wealth managers have an edge over their traditional counterparts as they are democratising investment opportunities for a large group of investors, automating operations, providing customizable discretionary mandates at scale, using hybrid models for investment advisory and creating teams that use data for client acquisition and offering exposure to cryptocurrencies.
In the report titled Global Wealth 2022: Standing Still Is Not an Option, it was observed that in 2021, digital wealth managers attracted $14.5 billion in funding, representing 11 per cent of total global investments.
The 22nd edition of the annual report on the global wealth management industry report further disclosed that the Middle East and Africa (ME&A) could see the biggest leap in wealth growth. Buoyed by the region’s massive energy holdings, wealth is on track to rise by a CAGR of 5.4 per cent over the next five years.
The report predicts that wealth assets will continue to rise in value in all regions. But Asia-Pacific will maintain the fastest rates of wealth growth, with asset values poised to increase by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.4 per cent through 2026. If that rate holds, the region could be home to nearly one-quarter of the world’s wealth by 2026.
In North America, wealth growth will be slower than in years past, with an estimated CAGR of 4.7 per cent through 2026, down from a prior five-year average of 9.1 per cent. Likewise, in Western Europe, wealth growth is likely to slow from roughly 4.5 per cent over the past five years to less than 4 per cent annually until 2026.
Global financial wealth reached a record high of $530 trillion in 2021, fuelled by strong equity markets, healthy corporate profits and a surge in demand for real assets.
Findings showed that despite geopolitical and economic destabilizers such as inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, approximately $80 trillion in new wealth is likely to be created over the next five years.
In a notable industry shift, Hong Kong will probably overtake Switzerland in 2023 as the domicile managing the largest amount of private cross-border wealth, ending a run of more than 200 years of Swiss dominance.
“As a new crop of technology-driven investment firms offering dollar-denominated investments to a wider investor group emerge in Nigeria, traditional wealth managers can better leverage evolving trends in private equity, digital wealth and crypto to embrace a digital service model and compete more effectively.
“Sustainable wealth creation is possible and an attractive proposition as shown by the growing number of fintech firms in Nigeria and the increased scale of investments they attract and manage. Nigerian fintech firms raised $800 million in 2021, boosting the valuation of some of these fast-growing start-ups and turning them into unicorns amid local and global economic headwinds.
“Wealth development is resoundingly resilient, and even against the backdrop of geopolitical turmoil the growth rate will remain positive,” said Anna Zakrzewski, global leader of BCG’s wealth management segment and a co-author of the report. “Although this stability provides a tremendous opportunity for wealth managers, they must make strategic choices to remain competitive. Wealth clients are looking for next-generation offers and next-level service—including net zero, crypto, personalization, and digitization.
“The most important question facing wealth managers today is not which initiatives to prioritize, but how best to implement them,” Phillipa Osakwe-Okoye, Principal, BCG Lagos, said.
Net Zero is an Immediate Imperative
Sustainable investing—of which net zero is a key component—is growing three to five times as fast as traditional investments, and by 2026 this asset class could account for 8 per cent to 17 per cent of privately invested wealth, up from 4 per cent to 11 per cent today.
Although people tend to think of net zero as a 2050 goal, the report notes that wealth managers must act immediately to embed sustainable investing across the entire client life cycle.
Crypto: An Untapped Market for Wealth Managers
Non-traditional wealth managers currently manage up to $1 trillion in crypto-related wealth, and the market capitalization for crypto could increase four- to fivefold by 2030. The opportunity for wealth managers is clear: nearly 80 per cent of clients surveyed said that they would consider increasing their crypto holdings if wealth managers offered advisory and education services.
Two-thirds of clients who sourced their crypto investment with third parties said that they did so because they didn’t think their wealth managers offered such services. To determine whether crypto is right for their businesses, wealth managers must consider if, when, and how they want to participate.
Personalization as a Driver of Top-Line Growth
On average, wealth managers that excel at customizing offers and interactions see higher rates of client satisfaction and lower rates of churn than others do. While these metrics translate into increased returns on client assets and liabilities, along with annual growth of more than 10 per cent, wealth managers that outperform on personalization are the exception rather than the rule.
Personalization is a complex undertaking that requires introducing new data and analytics, connecting processes across the firm’s front, middle, and back offices, and changing ways of working.
In the report, BCG identifies three actions that wealth managers vying to deliver individualized service at scale can take to improve personalization: prioritize capabilities that recur across journeys; design for value and scale; and back good ideas with the right enablers.
The Digital Wealth Management Premium is Real
The valuation multiples of digital wealth management firms are six or seven times as high as those of traditional wealth managers.
Furthermore, private funding in wealth tech has increased, with digital wealth management firms attracting $14.5 billion in funding in 2021 (11 per cent of total global investments). Digital wealth management institutions are delivering faster customer growth, cheaper cost structures, and superior rates of innovation. To protect their future profitability, traditional wealth managers must evolve with the times.
“Traditional wealth managers have known for years that they need to accelerate the pace of their own digitization,” said BCG’s Zakrzewski. “Now they have an additional incentive to emulate the practices of these digital leaders as they look for ways to secure future growth and increase their value to clients.”
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.
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