By Douglas Maha, Abuja
More than $50 billion in cryptocurrency transactions passed through Nigeria between July 2023 and June 2024, highlighting the country’s growing investor sophistication, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said.
Dr. Emomotimi Agama, SEC Director-General, disclosed the figures at the annual Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers conference in Lagos. He said the data underscores a stark contrast with Nigeria’s traditional capital market, where fewer than four per cent of adults are active investors.
“While fewer than three million Nigerians invest in the capital market, over 60 million engage in daily gambling, spending about $5.5 million a day,” Agama said, calling it a “paradox” of available risk appetite but limited trust and access to productive investment.
Nigeria’s market capitalisation-to-GDP ratio is around 30 per cent, far below South Africa’s 320 per cent, Malaysia’s 123 per cent, and India’s 92 per cent, he noted. The disparity shows the need to deepen financial inclusion and rebuild investor confidence.
Reviewing the 2015–2025 Capital Market Masterplan (CMMP), Agama said less than half of its 108 initiatives were fully achieved, citing weak alignment with national development plans, inadequate tracking, and limited stakeholder ownership.
He acknowledged progress in Green Bonds, Sukuk, fintech integration, and non-interest finance, but said market liquidity is concentrated in a few large-cap stocks, including Airtel Africa, Dangote Cement, and MTN Nigeria.
Agama outlined six key challenges for the next phase of reforms: low retail participation, market concentration, declining foreign inflows, underutilised pension assets, untapped diaspora capital, and a widening infrastructure financing gap. Nigeria’s annual $150 billion infrastructure deficit, he said, far exceeds the market’s current capacity.
He called for a “reimagined SEC” to act as both regulator and enabler of private-sector growth, with a focus on trust, transparency, and inclusion. “Vision without execution is inertia — and reform without measurement is aspiration without accountability,” Agama said.
