Author: Gift Ifeanyi

For years, the rate that determined what Nigerian banks charged each other to borrow overnight was built on something surprisingly fragile: estimates. Banks submitted what they thought rates should be, those submissions were averaged, and the resulting number — the Nigerian Inter-Bank Offered Rate, or NIBOR — became the foundation on which trillions of naira worth of loans and financial products were priced. It was, to put it plainly, a system built on opinion. And in April 2026, Nigeria quietly replaced it with one built on fact. The Central Bank of Nigeria, working alongside the Financial Markets Dealers Association, has…

The argument made at Lagos’ 10th Bullion Lecture Series was not new. But the urgency behind it is growing harder to dismiss. Nigeria extracts. It ships. Someone else processes, manufactures, and sells the finished product back — often to Nigeria — at multiples of what the raw material was worth at the point of export. The country captures the least valuable step in the chain and then wonders why industrialisation remains elusive. That, in essence, was the diagnosis delivered by a room full of raw materials and natural resources experts gathered under the theme: “From Resources to Prosperity: How Raw…

Not every earnings decline is a warning sign. Sometimes it’s a strategy — and UBA is betting that investors understand the difference. The United Bank for Africa posted a 22.8% drop in profit after tax for the first quarter of 2026, closing the period at ₦146.6 billion, down from the same quarter a year prior. Profit before tax fell 21.4% to ₦160.7 billion. On the surface, those are the kinds of numbers that make shareholders nervous. But UBA’s leadership has been signalling this outcome for months, framing it not as underperformance but as a deliberate reset — what the bank…

Most entrepreneurship programmes offer one of two things: knowledge or money. Blacknest Africa is quietly building a model that delivers both in the same room — and then hands over a cheque before participants leave. The Nigerian organisation has disbursed over ₦1 million in grants through its Business Plan Workshop series, held across Lagos and Jos over the past year, combining structured business training with live pitch sessions that end with real funding awarded on the spot. It is a format that cuts through one of the most persistent frustrations in Nigeria’s entrepreneurship support ecosystem: the gap between learning and…

The paintings were on the walls. The bids were on the table. And when the auction closed, the proceeds didn’t go to an endowment or an awareness campaign — they went directly into the hands of entrepreneurs with disabilities, as seed funding for small businesses across agriculture, tailoring, technology repair, and food production. That is the model The Ability Life Initiative is building. And it is a more sophisticated idea than it might first appear. TALI — founded by Dr. Prada Uzodimma and Ms. Oprah Uzodimma-Ohaeri — hosted its Art for Ability exhibition and auction in Abuja, bringing together a…

For early-stage founders in Lagos, one of the quietest but most persistent drains on a young company’s runway is workspace. Before revenue arrives, before investment closes, and before the business finds its footing, the cost of having a professional environment to build from can consume a disproportionate share of whatever capital a founder has managed to scrape together. The Lagos State Employment Trust Fund, in partnership with Lagos Innovates, has a programme designed to address exactly that — and applications are now open. The Workspace Voucher Programme offers selected startups subsidised access to quality co-working and hub spaces across Lagos,…

The warning came wrapped in a history lesson. And the history lesson came with a name most Nigerians know too well: Ajaokuta. The steel complex that absorbed billions of naira across decades, employed armies of consultants, and produced almost nothing commercially viable has become Nigeria’s most expensive monument to what happens when government decides to operate a business rather than create the conditions for one to thrive. Hon. Dele Kelvin Oye stood before the 2026 Vanguard Economic Discourse and said, plainly, that Nigeria’s $74 billion livestock sector must not become the next chapter of that story. Oye — immediate past…

Africa’s largest refinery is running at full capacity, exporting record volumes of jet fuel to European buyers, and generating margins that analysts estimate at more than double what European refiners are earning on the same product. It is, by any commercial measure, a remarkable success story. It is also, depending on where you sit, a crisis. Nigerian airlines are threatening to halt all flights. Jet fuel prices at the pump — accounting for logistics and storage — have climbed to ₦3,300 per litre, nearly triple what they were in February before the outbreak of the Iran war triggered unprecedented energy…

It’s ₦500. In isolation, that sounds like nothing. But when a central bank quietly proposes to raise the cost of one of the most basic tools of financial participation in a country of 220 million people — many of whom are already stretched thin — the number stops being small very quickly. The Central Bank of Nigeria has proposed raising the fee for ATM debit card issuance and replacement from ₦1,000 to ₦1,500, a 50% increase, as part of its 2026 Guide to Charges exposure draft. If adopted, the new fee structure takes effect from May 1, 2026 — less…

He was the man who first sounded the alarm on missing oil revenues. He later governed the Central Bank through some of its most turbulent years. Now, as Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II is doing what he has always done best — asking the uncomfortable question in public, loudly enough that it can’t be ignored. The question this time is simple. Brutal, even. If Nigeria removed the fuel subsidy — a policy that was costing the government hundreds of billions of naira every month — where exactly is that money going? Because the borrowing hasn’t stopped. If anything, it…

Most banks talk about supporting small businesses. Fidelity Bank is currently running a masterclass on how to price a product without undercutting yourself into bankruptcy — and about 100 entrepreneurs showed up to the first one. In April 2026, the bank launched a series of hands-on SME masterclasses out of its dedicated SME Hub in Gbagada, Lagos, covering the kind of practical business knowledge that rarely shows up in a loan brochure. The sessions aren’t theoretical. They’re built around the specific, immediate problems Nigerian small business owners are actually trying to solve. The opening session, titled “Pricing That Works: How…

There’s a version of youth empowerment that looks good in a press release and changes very little on the ground. Then there’s the version that puts payment infrastructure directly in the hands of young entrepreneurs and dares them to build something with it. ASIF — the Activate Success International Foundation — is betting on the second version. And it’s brought Flutterwave along to make sure the bet lands. The Nigerian non-profit has announced a strategic partnership with Africa’s leading payments technology company as the headline move for its 2026 Youth Entrepreneurship and Empowerment Programme, known as YEEP. The collaboration, disclosed…

In 1999, when most of Nigeria’s current startup founders were still in primary school, FATE Foundation quietly began what would become one of the most consequential experiments in African enterprise development. A quarter of a century later, the numbers tell a story that’s difficult to argue with. The Lagos-based non-profit has now trained 256,277 entrepreneurs across Nigeria — a figure that spans all 36 states and the FCT, with its reach extending further into Kenya, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Of those, 8,945 have graduated from its flagship programmes since inception, while 247,332 more have been…

It won’t come from a bank. It won’t come with collateral requirements or an interest rate buried in fine print. It’s coming from a pastor — and it might be exactly what Nigeria’s startup ecosystem needs right now. Poju Oyemade, one of Nigeria’s most prominent faith and business voices, has announced a ₦150 million grant programme targeted squarely at startups and small businesses across the country. The initiative is set to launch on May 1 at The Platform — the annual gathering that has built a reputation as one of Nigeria’s most serious intersections of faith, business, and policy thinking.…

Nigeria is one of the largest producers of fresh tomatoes on the planet. Fields across the north burst with the crop every season. And yet, every year, the country quietly writes a $400 million cheque to foreign producers for tomato paste — a product made almost entirely from the same fruit Nigeria grows in abundance. That figure, disclosed by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council at a technical workshop in Kano, is more than a statistic. It is a diagnosis. The workshop, organised under the One-State-One-Product initiative and focused on tomato value chain development for export, drew attention to one of…

In a move that signals a meaningful shift in how the United States engages economically with Africa’s largest economy, American agricultural financing is flowing back into Nigeria through a revived government-backed credit guarantee programme — and the numbers suggest the timing couldn’t be more deliberate. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s GSM-102 programme, which offers federal guarantees that allow Nigerian banks and importers to secure financing for purchasing American farm commodities, has reopened to Nigerian financial institutions following a restoration of eligibility in late 2025. Credit limits have already been extended to select Nigerian banks, meaning the pipeline isn’t theoretical —…

Amid rising costs and an economy still finding its footing, Nigerian Breweries just served up a financial result that’s worth raising a glass to. The country’s foremost brewing giant posted a 25.6% jump in profit after tax for the first quarter of 2026 — closing the period at ₦55.95 billion, up from ₦44.55 billion in the same quarter last year. Filed through the Nigerian Exchange and landing on investors’ desks Friday, the numbers paint a picture of a company quietly tightening its engine while the road gets bumpier. So what actually moved the needle? Revenue climbed 7.7% to ₦413.02 billion,…

When a European delivery giant quietly landed on Nigerian soil four years ago, few imagined it would soon be calling the country its crown jewel. Yet here we are. Spain-born on-demand platform Glovo has officially named Nigeria its fastest-growing market globally — a declaration made not in a boardroom overseas, but on Lagos ground at its flagship Future of Commerce 2026 summit. The announcement landed with weight: over ₦37 billion pumped into the Nigerian economy, 38 million deliveries completed in a single year, and merchant revenue that nearly doubled. For a market that some foreign investors once approached with hesitation,…

In a significant move to bridge the digital divide for local entrepreneurs, TikTok and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) have announced the launch of Digital Commerce Labs. This global initiative, specifically tailored for Nigeria, aims to transform small businesses from local vendors into digitally-savvy international competitors. The program is backed by a powerful domestic coalition including the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), ensuring that the global curriculum is grounded in the local Nigerian business context. The Strategy: Visibility Meets Velocity While TikTok is widely recognized for its “viral” potential, the…

The GTCO Food and Drink Festival is returning to Lagos from May 1 to May 3, 2026, with a 9th edition designed to be as much a financial intervention as a cultural celebration. Moving beyond its reputation as a premier food exhibition, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO) is using this year’s event to tackle three critical pain points for Nigerian entrepreneurs: Retail Scale, Access to Liquidity, and Spatial Equity. Staged at the GTCentre in Oniru, the festival will host 204 small businesses in free retail stalls, positioning the event as a high-volume testing ground for local food and beverage…