Economy
Owoafara to Assist Underserved Nigerian SMEs
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigerian startup, Owoafara, has announced plans to help small businesses grow and scale sustainability by connecting them with finance and business services.
The firm, which was founded in January 2019, was launched to solve the access to finance and business support problem of over 50 million underserved small businesses.
Mrs ‘Tale Alimi, who co-founded Owoafara alongside Ms Sally-Ann Ezekiel, said the startup’s first MVP, launched in November 2019, was a credit scoring and fund-matching platform to give small businesses a credit score and match them with financial institutions that would fund them.
“We have over 15 financial institutions signed up on the platform and have been able to facilitate $100,000 in transactions,” she said.
“However, we soon realised that most small businesses do not meet the typical criteria of traditional financial institutions so, the unit economics did not make sense for us to build a sustainable business,” she added.
So, in May this year, the startup launched Rouzo, a debt crowd-funding platform that uses Owoafara’s credit scoring algorithm to verify small businesses and then lend to them directly from money invested on the platform by users. It has also rolled out Suppotr, which helps companies access business services.
The lack of support available to small businesses in Nigeria became evident to the founder when she was running a direct to consumer fashion brand a couple of years ago.
“Sales grew fast, to thousands of dollars in GMV, but I could not get access to loans to expand production and distribution. I later lost the business to a shark investor,” she said.
“Sally-Ann had also worked in financial services previously and tried to pitch financial institutions to adopt the product Owoafara was trying to create. When our efforts were not successful, we joined forces to create this company.”
The startup, which has raised small friends and family funding round and took part in the Labs by ARM accelerator earlier this year, has verified over 450 businesses since it launched Rouzo and is currently growing its major metrics by almost 100 per cent month-on-month.
For now, Owoafara is focused on Lagos, but the founder said it has expansion plans.
“We plan to expand to five major cities within Nigeria in the next 12 months before we start regional expansion out of Nigeria,” she said.
The startup makes money from commission, fees, and the spread it gets between the asset under management and the loans under management.
“Our revenues are growing over 80 per cent month-on-month,” said Mrs Alimi.
Economy
NGX Group’s 65th Annual General Meeting Holds April 29
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The 65th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc has been fixed for Wednesday, April 29, 2026, at 11:00 am at its corporate head office on 2–4 Customs Street, Lagos.
Business Post gathered that the meeting would be streamed live on the company’s website and social media platforms to enable broader participation by shareholders and stakeholders unable to attend physically.
As part of a special business, shareholders will consider a proposed bonus issue of one new ordinary share for every three existing shares held as at the close of business on April 10, 2026, subject to regulatory approvals.
The proposal also includes an increase in the organisation’s share capital from N1,102,309,954 to N1,469,746,605, to accommodate the bonus shares and amendments to the Memorandum of Association to reflect the new capital structure.
Also at the gathering, shareholders will consider and, if deemed fit, approve the company’s audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2025, alongside the reports of the directors, auditors, board evaluation consultants, and audit committee.
The meeting will also deliberate on the declaration of a final dividend and the re-election of three non-executive directors retiring by rotation, who are Mr Umaru Kwairanga, Mrs Ojinika Olaghere, and Dr Okechukwu Itanyi.
Other ordinary business items on the agenda include authorising the board to fix the remuneration of the external auditors, determining the remuneration of managers, and electing members of the statutory audit committee.
Economy
BNB Price Reflects Changing Dynamics in the Digital Asset Market
Economy
NASD Unlisted Security Index Crosses 4,000-point Benchmark Again
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange achieved a milestone on Friday, April 24, 2026, after five securities on the platform helped with a 1.85 per cent growth.
Data showed that the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) again crossed the 4,000-point benchmark yesterday.
The index chalked up 73.64 points during the trading day to close at 4,052.59 points compared with the preceding session’s 3,978.95 points, while the market capitalisation added N5.38 billion to finish at N2.424 trillion versus Thursday’s closing value of N2.380 trillion.
The price gainers were led by Okitipupa Plc, which grew by N25.00 to sell at N305.00 per share compared with the previous price of N280.00 per share. Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc gained N6.92 to close at N76.26 per unit versus N69.34 per unit, Afriland Properties Plc appreciated by N1.00 to N17.00 per share from N18.00 per share, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc improved by 55 Kobo to N99.55 per unit from N99.00 per unit, and Food Concepts Plc increased by 5 Kobo to N2.70 per share from N2.65 per share.
However, there was a price loser, MRS Oil, which dipped by N21.75 to N195.75 per unit from N217.50 per unit.
During the final session of the week, the value of securities jumped 75.2 per cent to N41.3 million from N23.6 million units, and the number of deals expanded by 62.9 per cent to 44 deals from 27 deals, while the volume of securities declined marginally by 0.9 per cent to 447,403 units from 451,522 units.
At the close of trades, Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc was the most traded stock by volume (year-to-date) with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, trailed by Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units valued at N415.7 million, and Infrastructure Guarantee Credit Plc with 400 million units traded for N1.2 billion.
GNI was also the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 3.4 billion units sold for N8.4 billion, followed by CSCS Plc with 59.6 million units transacted for N4.0 billion, and Okitipupa Plc with 27.8 million units exchanged for N1.9 billion.
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