This Week In Finance: Latest Nigeria's Money News

Fintech pioneer Paga operates at a scale processing over $1.5 billion in monthly transaction volume while maintaining a lean workforce of roughly 200 employees, according to founder and CEO Tayo Oviosu during an interview on School of Hard Knocks.

Oviosu disclosed that the enterprise is currently valued in the "hundreds of millions of dollars" and recorded a peak single-year revenue of roughly $60 million. Having processed over ₦14 trillion in cumulative transactions over its 15-year history with 80% generated in the last five years alone Paga's cross-border holding architecture across the UK, Nigeria, Mexico, and Ethiopia positions it to capture rising digital transaction demand across Africa, where 60% of the population is under age 25.

Following its ongoing ₦2.15 trillion Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the Nigerian Exchange where 4.1 billion shares are offered at ₦525 each, Dangote Petroleum Refinery is preparing for a secondary primary listing on a United States stock exchange. Speaking at the Bloomberg-powered Qatar Economic Forum, Aliko Dangote disclosed that the US listing will follow a massive $14.3 billion expansion designed to double crude-processing capacity from 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.4 million bpd by 2029.

To complement its capital market roadmap, Dangote Group is rapidly deploying regional energy infrastructure across the continent. This strategy includes a 700,000 bpd refinery project in Kenya, a cross-border pipeline and tank farm system linking Djibouti and Ethiopia, and a 2,650-kilometer petroleum distribution pipeline traversing Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa.

Global institutional capital returned directly to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) following the country's official re-entry into FTSE Russell's Frontier Market indexes, ending a three-year hiatus forced by foreign-exchange and capital-repatriation bottlenecks. The market reclassification took effect at the opening of trading after FTSE Russell confirmed Nigeria satisfied all five quality-of-markets criteria. Institutional buying immediately concentrated in Tier-1 banking powerhouses that sit within the elite FTSE Frontier 50 Index.

Zenith Bank Plc led overall market turnover, absorbing ₦9.9 billion as trading volume surged to 77.07 million shares more than 3.5 times its 30-day daily average to close at ₦128.60. Guaranty Trust Holding Co. (GTCO) logged the strongest price gains among financial equities, advancing 3.9% to close at ₦133.90 on ₦3.41 billion in value traded. 

FirstHoldCo Plc generated ₦1.87 billion in turnover on 12.18 million shares traded, closing flat at ₦160 per share and outperforming the combined trading turnover of Access Holdings (₦665.46 million) and UBA (₦713.48 million). Analysts from Coronation and United Capital note that this re-entry acts as a major catalyst for passive index-tracking inflows into liquid, large-cap Nigerian financial stocks.

Following the conclusion of a 12-month, ₦1.08 trillion recapitalization drive under the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) is shifting the sector from a flat Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR) to a dynamic Risk-Based Capital (RBC) framework. Under the upcoming framework, statutory capital will no longer serve as a fixed ceiling. NAICOM is conducting quantitative impact studies ("risk charting") using insurers' 10-year historical loss ratios.

Insurers operating high-risk portfolios, such as aviation or oil and gas underwriting, will face risk charges adding up to 30% or more to their baseline capital requirements. Rather than continually raising fresh equity, insurers can choose to trim their underwriting exposure in high-risk lines to match their existing capital profile. This shift forces operators to move away from pure capital acquisition toward rigorous, data-driven risk pricing.