Economy
Nigeria Loses $30bn Yearly to Forex Racketeering—Reps
By Dipo Olowookere
The House of Representatives on Thursday raised an alarm over the huge amount of money lost annually by Nigeria to financial leakages.
A member of the lower chamber of the National Assembly, Mr James Faleke, in a motion moved today and seconded by Mr Rurum Nasir, said about $30 billion is lost through fictitious and misappropriated means.
According to him, some highly influential persons and companies engage in foreign exchange racketeering by obtaining forex at cheap rates from the government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for businesses in the country at less than N310/$1, but abandon what they got the FX for to resell at higher rates like N360/$1.
He said this was a sabotage to the economy especially at a time when the nation still grapples with funds to carry out capital projects, especially when considering how various revenue-generating, levying and taxing agencies fall short of their annual financial targets.
Mr Faleke, therefore, called on the House Committee on Finance, as well as that on Banking and Currency to conduct public hearings to unravel these misappropriations and other such schemes and make a formal report that would advise the House on the appropriate course of sanctioning to those found culpable, to serve as a deterrent for those who would intend to continue doing this.
In his contribution, Mr Toby Okechukwu stated that the motion addresses critical loopholes and infractions aimed at defrauding Nigeria. He called for a more holistic investigation to find out if there is collusion by insiders who should be protecting the national financial interest.
Mr Okechukwu stated that Nigeria cannot afford to lose such amount annually and all measures to block such financial leakages should be employed.
On his part, Mr Mohammed Tahir Monguno stated that the motion was in tandem with the constitutional role of legislators to expose corruption and investigate all financial infractions. He stated that if these leakages are blocked, the nation can capture more capital projects in the budget.
Another contributor to the debate, Mr Henry Nwawuba, stated that the motion was investigative and the window for such corruption has been permitted by certain factors such as a non-stringent means of acquiring foreign exchange and slack oversight.
He called for a robust public hearing to shed more light on the matter to expose and sanction those directly involved, while Mr Alhassan Ado-Doguwa stated that it was sad when Nigeria was making financial sacrifices and was even contemplating dropping its benchmark and propose a downward review of the budget expectations due to lack of funds; that some unpatriotic elements would exploit well-intended schemes of government to ensure ease of doing business to short-change the nation.
He also called for thorough investigations during the public hearing and for the highest sanctions to be applied on those found culpable.
The lawmaker called for the enforcement of the sanctions that will come from the hearing and ensure the outcome serves as a deterrent for all in such practices.
Also, Mr Leke Abejide stated that the motion speaks to a critical area of financial rascality that has been going on for long in defrauding Nigeria. This, he stated, is just one of the forms it takes, noting that such sharp practices also exist in the importing and exporting sector and has been ongoing for years, calling for a wholistic investigation into all such financial rascality.
Speaker of the House of Representative, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, stated that the motion was highly critical, especially as world revenue is expected to further decline due to the coronavirus, noting that all financial leakages must be blocked.
According to him, there are two types of leakages; one is the negligence-based leakages, and the more grievous one is the calculated one, where there is the intention to defraud, which he said the House frowns heavily upon.
However, Mr Gbajabiamila clarified that it should be an investigative hearing and not a public hearing as the prayer of the motion called for.
This resulted in the motion being amended to make the hearing investigative and not just public. It was then voted on and adopted as amended.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Luno Nigeria has received Approval in Principle (AIP) from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through admission into its Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP), marking a significant milestone in the country’s evolving digital asset regulatory landscape.
The approval follows an extensive engagement process between the company and the regulator and represents a major step in Luno Nigeria’s regulatory journey. As a result, it becomes the first global cryptocurrency exchange to be admitted.
Nigeria has a sordid regulatory minefield when it comes to digital assets; while it encourages new technologies, it has not fully lifted restrictions placed on crypto transactions via official channels.
Admission into ARIP means the cryptocurrency platform has met the commission’s requirements to participate in the programme and is authorised to operate within its defined scope, subject to ongoing compliance obligations and regulatory conditions, thus limiting full utilisation.
Founded in Africa in 2013, Luno has operated in Nigeria since 2015 and was among the first cryptocurrency exchanges to serve the Nigerian market. It was affected by a blanket ban announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The company said the latest approval reinforces its commitment to operating within Nigeria’s emerging regulatory framework for digital assets.
Commenting on the development, the chief executive of Luno Nigeria, Mr Ayotunde Alabi, described the approval as a landmark achievement for the company.
“This is an important milestone for Luno Nigeria and a strong validation of our commitment to building responsibly in one of Africa’s most important cryptocurrency markets. Admission into ARIP gives us a clearer regulatory pathway, strengthens trust with customers and partners, and provides a stronger foundation for the next phase of our growth, particularly as we expand our focus on institutional and B2B opportunities,” Mr Alabi said.
He expressed appreciation to the regulator for its continued engagement throughout the approval process and commended the Luno team for its resilience and commitment in achieving the milestone.
Luno said the regulatory approval comes at a time when it is expanding its business-to-business operations by engaging banks, fintech companies, payment providers, asset managers and corporate institutions seeking digital asset solutions.
According to the company, increasing regulatory clarity has become a key requirement for institutional adoption of digital assets. It noted that admission into ARIP would strengthen its ability to provide compliant digital asset infrastructure, including stablecoin applications, treasury solutions, crypto-as-a-service offerings and secure access to digital assets.
The Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme is the SEC’s regulatory sandbox designed to accelerate the onboarding of digital asset and investment service providers, including Virtual Asset Service Providers and tokenised product platforms.
The initiative enables the commission to assess emerging technologies and business models in a controlled environment while ensuring adequate investor protection and market integrity.
Building on the initial licensing rollout in 2024, Luno’s admission into the second batch of the programme underscores Nigeria’s efforts to establish a structured and transparent regulatory framework for the digital asset ecosystem, while strengthening confidence among investors, institutional partners and other market participants.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Regulation Limited has allowed the trading in the shares of Fortis Global Insurance Plc.
This followed the completion of the share capital reconstruction of the organisation, which triggered the suspension a few weeks ago.
In a notice dated June 17, 2026, NGX RegCo announced the suspension of the underwriting company because of the exercise.
Yesterday, another notice was issued to inform the investing public of the lifting of the embargo on the securities of the organisation.
A total of 12,911,030,586 ordinary shares of Fortis Global Insurance were delisted, with 3,227,757,647 ordinary shares relisted at N3.96 per share.
“We refer to our market bulletin with reference number NGXREG/IRD/MB68/26/6/17, dated June 17, 2026, wherein the Market was notified that trading in the shares of Fortis Global Insurance Plc was placed on suspension effective Wednesday, June 17, 2026, in preparation for the share reconstruction of the company’s issued shares.
“The market is hereby notified that the entire 12,911,030,586 ordinary shares of Fortis Global Insurance were delisted from the daily official list of Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on July 2, 2026, while the newly reconstructed issued share capital of 3,227,757,647 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each were also listed on the daily official list of NGX at N3.96 per share.
“The delisting of 12,911,030,586 ordinary shares and listing of 3,227,757,647 ordinary shares on NGX is pursuant to the approval received from the company’s shareholders at its Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of April 4, 2025, and the no-objection received from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“Consequently, following the completion of the share reconstruction, the suspension placed on the securities of the company has been lifted,” the circular signed by Bonaventure Onwuji, on behalf of the Head of Issuer Regulation Department at NGX RegCo, stated.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) to grant a one-month extension for the filing of Company Income Tax (CIT) returns.
The appeal followed widespread technical glitches that occurred on the newly introduced Rev360 tax platform, which restricted organisations from meeting the June 30 deadline.
The Director General of the think tank, Mrs Chinyere Almona, in a statement, also appealed to the NRS to waive penalties for companies that were unable to file their returns by the Tuesday statutory deadline due to the portal’s failure.
Mrs Almona explained that the prolonged downtime experienced on the Rev360 platform on the deadline day prevented thousands of companies from completing their tax filings, noting that though some businesses waited until the last minute to file their returns, the widespread system failure could not be blamed on taxpayers.
“Rev360 inaugurated about two months ago, suffered prolonged downtime on Tuesday, leaving thousands of companies unable to file with only hours to spare.
“This is a platform failure, not a taxpayer failure,” she said.
The LCCI director general noted that while teething challenges were expected with a newly deployed digital platform, inaugurating it close to a major statutory deadline exposed businesses to avoidable risks.
According to her, the heavy volume of last-minute users reveals shortcomings in the platform’s capacity, resulting in login failures, validation errors and unsuccessful submissions when taxpayers need reliable access.
She, therefore, appealed to the tax body to immediately extend the CIT filing deadline by one month and waive all penalties for companies that attempted to file on or before the deadline but were prevented from doing so by the system outage.
The LCCI head also appealed to the revenue agency to urgently improve the platform’s capacity and reliability ahead of subsequent filing deadlines.
“The LCCI appeals to the NRS to announce the extension and penalty waiver as soon as possible to avoid apprehension and confusion within the business community,” Mrs Almona said.
She added that in the interest of ensuring a smooth implementation of the new tax administration system, granting an extension had become necessary. According to her, adopting a cautious regulatory approach during the rollout of the new platform will help build confidence among taxpayers while supporting compliance.
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