Nigeria’s Quest For $1trn Economy Hinged On Capital Market Reforms

Proshare has unveiled its latest capital market report, titled ‘Nigeria’s Capital Market and the Quest for a $1trn Economy,’ emphasizing the critical role of robust capital market reforms in Nigeria’s journey toward achieving a $1trn GDP by 2030.

The report highlights the urgency of strategic economic policies and deliberate capital market development to unlock the country’s potential for sustained growth.

The report underscores the substantial progress Nigeria’s capital market has made over the past two decades while acknowledging its persistent limitations.

The analysts pointed to the market’s shallow structure and insufficient depth to provide the long-term financing required for transformative infrastructure projects.

This shortfall is identified as a significant barrier to achieving a compound nominal annual growth rate of 22.40 per cent, the rate necessary to meet the ambitious GDP target by 2030.

Proshare’s analysis stresses that the federal government’s projected GDP growth rate of 4.6 per cent for 2025 falls short of what is required. Without significant policy reforms, strategic adjustments, and an enabling environment for private sector participation, the report warns that the current growth trajectory will not suffice.

Proshare’s report provides a blueprint for leveraging the capital market to catalyze Nigeria’s economic transformation. The recommendations emphasize financializing idle public assets through securitization and urban regeneration initiatives to create self-financing and sustainable projects.

Aligning capital market financing with projects outlined in the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) is critical, as is strengthening price discovery mechanisms, valuation processes, and the listing of viable state-owned enterprises to foster transparency and market efficiency.

Moving beyond policy promises to implement actionable reforms that attract global investment and energize market activity is also deemed essential.

Nigeria’s Quest For $1trn Economy Hinged On Capital Market Reforms is first published on The Whistler Newspaper