Economy
FBNQuest Merchant Bank Offers to Help SMEs Issue CPs, Bonds
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
For Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and corporates looking to raise funds for their day-to-day operations, commercial papers and bonds can be issued instead of obtaining a loan from commercial banks.
This is the view of FBNQuest Merchant Bank, the investment banking and asset management group of FBN Holdings Plc.
A commercial paper, also known as CP, is a money-market security issued by companies with a maturity of not more than 270 days to get capital from investors to meet short-term debt obligations.
On its part, a bond is a note issued by organisations to obtain funds from investors at a coupon rate but has longer maturity, unlike the CP. Most companies sell bonds with a tenor of three, five, seven and 10 years and even more.
Raising capital is one of the challenges small business owners face, but FBNQuest Merchant Bank is offering to assists SMEs to overcome this hurdle.
As a leading investment banking institution, FBNQuest has advised on the issuance of several commercial papers transactions for organisations such as Valency Agro Nigeria Limited, Mixta Real Estate plc, Dangote Cement plc, Nigerian Breweries plc (NB), Lafarge Africa plc, Flour Mills of Nigeria plc (FMN), Wema Bank plc, and UACN Property Development Company plc (UPDC) to mention a few.
These transactions add to the firm’s impressive portfolio of organisations it has supported and once again highlights its capabilities in the successful execution of sizeable capital market and commercial debt transactions.
At the latest edition of the Leading Conversations with FBNQuest webinar series, Mr Oluseun Olatidoye, the Head Capital Markets, FBNQuest, noted that many companies do not take advantage of Nigeria’s growing commercial paper and bond market to access stable funds that match their capital needs.
“Even though interest rates have trended higher in the first quarter of this year, there is still significant scope for many companies to access cheaper and more stable funding from investors who are seeking well-run businesses with predictable cashflows to invest in,” said Mr Olatidoye.
The webinar with the theme Funding through Commercial Papers and Bonds was hosted to engage corporates and investors on the opportunities within issuing and investing in commercial papers and bonds.
Mr Olatidoye submitted that Nigeria’s capital market has recorded a flurry of corporate commercial papers and bond issues since a sharp decline in interest rates in the third quarter of 2020.
“We think the market conditions have just cast the spotlight on a financing option that discerning companies should consider.
“We look forward to working with our clients to navigate the process of issuing CPs and bonds and therefore unlocking the efficiency and convenience that these instruments offer” stated Mr Olatidoye.
Other speakers included Sumit Jain, Senior Executive Director at Valency International, a leading food-ingredient supply chain company. He echoed the sentiment about the benefits of issuing commercial papers.
“We believe that corporates can lower the interest paid on bank debts by up to 4 percentage points by issuing commercial papers. Loans also offer other tremendous benefits in the current macroeconomic environment,” said Jain.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Manufacturers are yet to benefit from relief on the burden of multiple taxes and levies despite the enactment of the Nigeria Tax Act 2025, according to the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN).
The association, in its Manufacturers CEO Confidence Index (MCCI) report for the second quarter of 2026, said manufacturers continued to face multiple tax collectors and regulatory agencies during the period.
Director-General of MAN, Mr Segun Ajayi-Kadir, said the new tax law, which was expected to reduce the burden of multiple taxation, had yet to deliver the intended benefits.
“Manufacturers complained that they were still met with multiple tax collectors and regulators in Q2 2026. It follows that the implementation of the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 is yet to achieve its objective of relieving manufacturers of the burden of taxes and levies,” he said.
According to the report, Nigeria’s business environment remains largely unsupportive of manufacturing growth, with local sourcing of raw materials emerging as the only indicator that recorded noticeable improvement.
MAN, however, warned that the gains in local sourcing could be undermined by worsening insecurity in parts of the country.
The association attributed the improvement largely to persistent foreign exchange constraints, which have forced many manufacturers to source inputs locally.
Despite this, it said excessive regulation and multiple taxation continue to weigh heavily on manufacturers.
The report showed that manufacturers recorded a modest increase in sales volume during the second quarter, but rising production, distribution and logistics costs continued to erode profitability.
It added that capacity utilisation, production levels, investment and employment remained broadly unchanged during the review period.
MAN further observed that although recent foreign exchange reforms had helped stabilise the naira, inadequate foreign currency supply remained a major constraint to manufacturing operations.
Other key challenges identified in the report include poor infrastructure, high production costs, raw material shortages and unfavourable trade policies.
The association said the findings underscore the continued pressure on manufacturers despite recent fiscal and foreign exchange reforms, stressing the need for more effective implementation of policies aimed at improving the operating environment for the real sector.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government spent N3.14 trillion on servicing its domestic debt in the first quarter (Q1) of 2026, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO).
The figure, contained in the DMO’s latest domestic debt service report for Q1 2026, comprised N2.97 trillion in interest payments and N169.68 billion in principal repayments.
According to the report, the government spent N741.82 billion on domestic debt service in January before the figure rose to N967.67 billion in February.
Debt service increased further to N1.43 trillion in March, bringing total spending for the quarter to N3.14 trillion.
The March figure represented a 47.7 per cent increase from the N967.67 billion recorded in February and was 92.7 per cent higher than the N741.82 billion spent in January.
The debt office said interest payments accounted for approximately 94.6 per cent of the total domestic debt service during the quarter.
Treasury bills accounted for the largest share of interest payments at N1 trillion, while interest payments on Federal Government bonds stood at N1.96 trillion.
The government also paid N4.24 billion in interest on FGN savings bonds during the period.
The debt management body said the principal component of the debt service comprised N169.68 billion in repayments on local-denominated promissory notes.
Overall, domestic debt service rose significantly throughout the quarter, with March alone accounting for nearly half of the N3.14 trillion spent between January and March.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr Emomotimi Agama, has outlined how the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) can leverage Nigeria’s capital market to raise long-term funds for critical infrastructure projects instead of relying solely on annual budgetary allocations.
According to Mr Agama, the capital market offers the FCT a sustainable financing model for roads, rail, housing, water, transport and other infrastructure through instruments such as infrastructure bonds, green bonds, real estate investment trusts (REITs), asset recycling and tokenised municipal securities.
Speaking at the Abuja Business and Investment Summit and Expo (ABIE 2026) in Abuja, the SEC chief noted that Abuja’s development demonstrates that economic growth is driven by investment, stressing that “cities are not built by budgets alone. Cities are built by capital markets.”
He advised the FCT to establish a long-term infrastructure bond programme backed by dedicated revenue sources such as ground rents, tenement rates, tolls, parking fees and land-use charges, noting that this would enable the territory to finance major projects without overburdening annual budgets.
“A budget can only spend what a single year has collected. A bond can spend what 30 years will collect,” Mr Agama said, explaining that infrastructure projects generate long-term economic value that can be used to service debt over time.
The SEC boss said the territory could also access cheaper financing through green and sustainability-linked bonds for projects including mass transit, light rail, solar-powered street lighting, waste-to-energy facilities and water infrastructure.
He further proposed the creation of an FCT Real Estate Investment Trust to unlock value from Abuja’s extensive property portfolio while giving ordinary Nigerians an opportunity to invest in the city’s real estate market.
Mr Agama also urged Abuja Investments Company Limited (AICL) to consider listing some of its businesses or establishing a listed infrastructure fund, saying this would raise capital without increasing government debt while improving corporate governance and transparency.
On the long-abandoned Millennium Tower project, he said the estimated over N400 billion completion cost should not be viewed as a budgetary burden but as an investment opportunity that could be financed through a special purpose vehicle and offered to investors via the capital market.
“The question is not whether Nigeria can afford the Millennium Tower. The question is whether we will let ordinary Nigerians own it,” he said.
Mr Agama further proposed an asset recycling programme under which completed income-generating public assets, including terminals, markets, commercial properties and the International Conference Centre, could be securitised or concessioned to institutional investors, with proceeds reinvested in new infrastructure.
He also called on the FCT to pioneer a regulated tokenised municipal bond programme that would allow citizens to invest as little as N10,000 through mobile phones in specific infrastructure projects.
According to him, the recently enacted Investments and Securities Act (ISA) 2025 has strengthened the legal framework for sub-national governments to access the capital market while providing enhanced investor protection and clearer regulation of digital assets.
Mr Agama disclosed that Nigeria’s capital market has grown significantly, with total market capitalisation exceeding N217 trillion as of May 2026, comprising about N160.5 trillion in equities and N56.7 trillion in bonds.
He said recent reforms, including the migration to a T+1 settlement cycle and regulatory measures to deepen market participation, have improved market efficiency and strengthened investor confidence.
The SEC DG assured the FCTA of the commission’s readiness to provide technical support for structuring and registering capital market instruments, saying the agency would work closely with the territory to unlock financing for infrastructure projects.
He added that Nigeria’s capital market remains critical to mobilising domestic savings for national development, insisting that “money is not scarce; delivery capacity is scarce, and financing follows delivery capacity.”
