Umaru Kwairanga, chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group, dropped a major update over the weekend: the federal government plans to “sell a stake in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.”
He made the disclosure while delivering a keynote address at the ‘For the Love of Our Country (FLOC)’ 2025 symposium held at Bayero University, Kano, according to NAN.
That wasn’t all, Kwairanga revealed that “Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals would soon be listed on the exchange.” He pointed to upcoming milestones in the oil and gas sector, naming “the planned sale of a stake in NNPC Ltd and the anticipated listing of Dangote Petrochemicals” as moves that could shake up Nigeria’s capital markets by significantly increasing market capitalisation.
He spotlighted tech’s growing role in finance, citing the launch of “NGX Invest, a digital platform for primary market offers and financial literacy campaigns targeting youths, students, and members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).”
Behind the scenes, the NGX is in talks with institutional investors like pension fund managers and mutual funds. It’s also working on more sophisticated offerings such as “exchange-traded funds, derivatives, and ethical investment instruments.”
One of the bolder visions Kwairanga shared involves linking Africa’s capital markets. He said efforts are underway to enable Nigerian investors to buy and sell stocks from other African countries like Ghana, thanks to “cross-border linkages.”
“We are confident that Nigeria will have the broader, deeper, and more sophisticated capital market it deserves before the end of this decade,” he said.
He aligned this vision with President Bola Tinubu’s $1 trillion GDP ambition by 2030, saying the Exchange remains focused on expanding the financial markets to support that growth.
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Kwairanga acknowledged the current hurdles“declining disposable income, infrastructural deficits, and global economic headwinds”but maintained they could be overcome.
On performance, he shared hard numbers. The all-share index surged from 48,837 to 111,742 points, while market capitalisation jumped from N26.375 trillion to N70.463 trillion by May. Including the bond market, total capitalisation now exceeds N121 trillion.
“This growth shows that we have more than doubled the indices of both our equity and bond markets in just over two years,” Kwairanga noted.
Still, he said the NGX has bigger goals: “making the capital market central to achieving a $1 trillion economy.”
He described the capital market as key to long-term infrastructure funding, formalising more businesses, and better representing Nigeria’s economic reality.
But there’s still a gap. Compared to South Africa’s JSE, which outpaces its national GDP, “Nigeria’s market capitalisation remains less than 20 percent of Nigeria’s GDP.”
To close that gap, the NGX, alongside the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has rolled out several steps to improve market efficiency and transparency.