Agency Report
More than $50 billion in cryptocurrency transactions passed through Nigeria between July 2023 and June 2024, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), underscoring a dramatic shift in how Nigerians move and store their wealth — and raising questions about confidence in the country’s conventional financial markets.
Dr. Emomotimi Agama, the Director-General of the SEC, said in a statement on Sunday that while digital assets are flourishing, citizen participation in the traditional capital market remains “alarmingly low.” Fewer than four percent of Nigerian adults are active investors, he said, calling the trend a “critical impediment to economic growth and capital formation.”
Fewer than three million Nigerians currently hold investments in stocks or bonds, the agency estimated. By contrast, over 60 million people engage in gambling daily, spending roughly $5.5 million each day — a disparity Agama described as both revealing and troubling.
“This reveals a paradox,” he said. “An appetite for risk clearly exists, but not the trust or access to channel that energy into productive investment.”
The figures illustrate a deeper structural challenge for Africa’s largest economy. Nigeria’s market capitalization stands at about 30 percent of its Gross Domestic Product — a fraction of South Africa’s 320 percent, Malaysia’s 123 percent, or India’s 92 percent. That gap, Agama warned, underscores the urgency of rebuilding investor confidence and expanding financial inclusion.
With an estimated $150 billion annual infrastructure deficit, Nigeria’s capital market contributes only modestly to national development. “Only N1.5 trillion has been approved in Public Private Partnership bonds,” Agama said, describing the imbalance as a “misalignment between financial innovation and national priorities.”
He called for what he termed a “reimagined SEC” — one that would act not only as a regulator but also as a catalyst for private-sector-led growth, capable of bridging the divide between innovation and investment.