Shares of First Holdco Plc, popularly referred to by market operators as the “Elephant” of the Nigerian banking sector, extended their losing streak on the Nigerian Exchange, shedding 16.78% within three trading sessions amid aggressive profit-taking, sentiment reversal, and early adjustments to the new T+1 settlement cycle.

The decline has erased billions from the group’s market value, as investors rapidly reposition portfolios in response to shifting market dynamics under the faster trade settlement system.

Why the “Elephant Stock” Declined

Market analysts say First Holdco’s sharp drop was driven by a combination of structural and sentiment-based factors tied to the ongoing transition to the NGX T+1 trading cycle.

The new settlement framework has accelerated trade confirmation and cash movement, reducing the lag between execution and settlement. While this improves market efficiency, it has also increased the speed of profit-taking and portfolio rebalancing, especially in stocks that had experienced strong speculative rallies.

Analysts noted that First Holdco’s earlier price surge to a 52-week high of ₦81.90 was largely driven by sentiment and shareholder accumulation rather than proportional earnings growth. As the T+1 system deepens liquidity responsiveness, overextended positions are being corrected more quickly.

The stock has now retreated significantly from its peak, reflecting a broader recalibration across financial services equities.

Market Data Signals Heavy Selling Pressure

Trading data showed heightened volume activity as investors offloaded approximately 20.07 million shares valued at ₦1.22 billion in a single session. The selloffs contributed to a reduction in First Holdco’s market capitalisation, now estimated at ₦2.589 trillion.

The correction places the stock well below its recent highs, reinforcing concerns of overvaluation following its earlier rally phase.

Expert Reactions: Structural Adjustment, Not Panic

Reacting to The Ameh News inquiry, economist Celestine Ukpong said the decline reflects a normal market adjustment under a faster settlement regime.

He explained that the NGX T+1 cycle has removed friction in trading timelines, making price corrections more immediate when sentiment shifts.

According to him, investors are now more sensitive to fundamentals such as earnings performance, dividend outlook, and capital adequacy, rather than speculative momentum.

Financial analyst and Fellow Chartered Accountant, Peter Adebayo FCA, described the selloff as a “healthy portfolio rebalancing phase,” noting that banking stocks typically experience sharp corrections after rapid rallies.

He added that tighter liquidity conditions and shifting interest rate expectations are encouraging institutional investors to reduce exposure to overbought positions.

Outlook: Volatility to Persist Under T+1 Regime

Analysts expect continued short-term volatility as the market fully adjusts to the T+1 settlement structure, which compresses trading cycles and accelerates reactions to news and sentiment shifts.

Key drivers going forward include:

Earnings performance across Tier-1 banks

Dividend announcements and payout expectations

Capital adequacy restoration strategies

Monetary policy direction and liquidity conditions

While the correction has unsettled short-term traders, analysts believe it reflects a broader maturation of pricing efficiency in Nigeria’s evolving capital market.

First Holdco Plc, known as the “Elephant” stock, falls 16.78% in three days as NGX T+1 trading cycle triggers profit-taking and portfolio reshuffling. Experts Celestine Ukpong and Peter Adebayo FCA explain reasons behind the decline and market outlook.

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By Mannir U. Ringim (PhD)

Long before the satellite forecasts and the seasonal advisories, the African farmer learned to read the sky. He watched the colour of the clouds, the behaviour of the birds, the first scent of rain on hot ground, and he planted accordingly. For generations, that knowledge was reliable enough to feed nations. Today, it is faltering not because the farmer has forgotten how to read the signs, but because the signs themselves have changed. The rains that once came in April now arrive in May, or not at all. The harmattan lingers. The river that once flooded every decade now floods twice in five years. Nature is still sending its signals; they have become harder and crueller to read.

Today, the world marks World Environment Day. This year’s theme, “Inspired by Nature. For Climate. For Our Future,” will be examined in Baku and echoed in boardrooms and headlines across the world. It is a worthy conversation, but the people who live that theme most literally will not be in any of those rooms. They are the smallholder farmers of northern Nigeria and the wider Sahel, the rice growers of the Niger basin, the cassava, cocoa, and oil palm households from Cross River to the forests of the coast. It is a Nigerian story, but not only a Nigerian one: the same signals are being read across West Africa, and in the last decade, the reading has grown harder.

I want to make a single argument on this day of World Environment Day, and although it begins in the field, it ends in the boardroom: in our part of the world, agricultural finance is climate finance. The most direct, most local and most consequential form of climate action available to the region’s financial sector is not a distant carbon market or an offset scheme negotiated abroad. It is the decision to put serious, patient and intelligent capital into the hands of the people working the most climate-exposed asset we possess — our land. Get that decision right, and we address food security, rural livelihoods and climate resilience in a single motion. Get it wrong, and we will keep treating three faces of one crisis as though they were unrelated problems.

The signals from the land

To understand why this matters, it helps to travel the land as those of us in business banking do. Across the Sahel, the desert is not a metaphor; it advances year upon year over farmland that fed families in living memory. Lake Chad — once one of Africa’s great freshwater bodies, shared by Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon — has retreated to a fraction of its former size, carrying fishing and farming livelihoods with it. In the middle belts, the rains have turned violent and unpredictable, and a single night of flooding can erase a season’s labour and a year’s income. Along the coast and the eroding river valleys, gully after gully swallows farms, homes and roads. These are not isolated misfortunes; they are the local expressions of a global phenomenon, and the people absorbing them first are the people who feed everyone else.

This is the part of the climate story we too often misfile. We log the late rains under “agriculture,” the flood under “disaster relief,” the rising cost of a meal under “the economy,” and we reserve the word “environment” for tree-planting campaigns. But these are not separate ledgers. The farmer who cannot plant because the rains failed, the trader who charges more because the harvest shrank, the young person who leaves the village because the farm no longer pays — all are responding to the same signal. In our region, climate change announces itself first as an agricultural event. We will not manage it as an environmental one until we are willing to finance it as an economic one.

A paradox of capital

Here lies a contradiction we have tolerated for far too long. Agriculture employs more people than any other sector in Nigeria and across much of West Africa, and contributes a substantial share of national output. By any honest measure, it is the foundation of the real economy, and yet, for decades, it has drawn only a single-digit share of total bank lending, which is a fraction of its weight in jobs, in food, and in stability. We have built financial systems that are, in effect, under-invested in the very sector that sustains them.

The reasons are familiar to every banker. Agriculture has long been judged too risky, too seasonal, too informal and too hard to collateralise. A farmer’s income arrives once or twice a year, not monthly; his balance sheet consists of a few hectares, some livestock, and a great deal of practical knowledge. No conventional credit model was built to value it. So, capital did the rational short-term thing: it stayed away, or lent briefly and expensively, on terms that suited the lender’s calendar rather than the crop’s. That caution made sense in a stable climate. In a changing one, it is self-defeating because the farmer who cannot borrow cannot adapt. He cannot buy the drought-tolerant seed, install the modest irrigation that frees him from relying on a single rainy season, or afford the storage that keeps a good harvest from spoiling before the market. We have been asking our most climate-exposed citizens to face the hardest conditions in memory with the least capital available to them. That is not prudence; it is a slow failure of both economics and adaptation, and the bill arrives at every table as more expensive food.

Risk is also a design problem.

If there is good news here, it is that much of what we call “agricultural risk” is not a law of nature. It is a design problem, and design problems can be solved. The past few years have produced a genuinely more sophisticated toolkit, and the institutions willing to use it are finding the sector far more bankable than the old assumptions allowed. It begins with lending that fits the farmer rather than forcing the farmer to fit the facility: cash-flow facilities structured around the crop cycle, disbursing at planting and falling due after harvest. Value-chain and anchor-borrower models, in which a credible off-taker sits between the bank and thousands of smallholders, solve the scale, collateral, and market access problems at a single stroke. Warehouse-receipt systems let stored grain serve as collateral, so a farmer need not sell everything at harvest, when prices are lowest, merely to raise cash.

Around that core sits an expanding set of instruments: input and mechanisation finance to lift yields; irrigation finance to break the dependence on the rains; cold-chain and storage finance to attack the staggering share of what we grow that is still lost after harvest, losses that are, in their own quiet way, as much an environmental cost as an economic one, since every wasted tonne is water, land, fuel and labour spent for nothing. Weather-index insurance can pay out automatically when rainfall falls below a threshold, turning an uninsurable risk into a priced one, and the spread of mobile technology and farm-level data — satellite imagery, mapping, digital payment histories — is finally giving lenders an evidence-based way to assess the smallholder they once treated as invisible. None of this is theoretical; each instrument is already in use somewhere in the region today. The task is not to invent new tools but to deploy the existing ones at scale, and with discipline.

Here, agricultural finance and the climate agenda converge, because the instruments that make farming bankable are, almost without exception, the ones that make it resilient. Irrigation is an adaptation. Drought-tolerant seed is an adaptation. Healthier soils, smarter water use, agroforestry that holds back the desert, storage that wastes less — these are not optional “green” extras; they are the difference between a farm that survives a harsher climate and one that does not. The point lands with particular force in West Africa, among the most climate-vulnerable yet least climate-financed regions on earth. The global conversation has turned decisively to climate finance — Azerbaijan, this year’s World Environment Day host, carried that agenda as president of COP29 — but climate finance is not only something that happens at altitude. Its most grounded form, for us, is the facility that enables a cooperative to drill a borehole or build a warehouse. The local reality is how the global ambition gets delivered.

Shared risk, shared frontier

None of this can rest on the banks alone, and it should not. The risks are real, and the most durable way to manage them is to share them among the actors who each hold a piece of the solution. Governments set the frameworks, build rural infrastructure, and provide the guarantees that make long-tenor lending viable. Development finance institutions, the African Development Bank chief among them, with their long-standing ambition to feed the continent, bring the patient, blended capital that crowds in commercial lenders rather than out. Insurers price the weather risk that banks should not carry alone. Agritech firms and aggregators supply data and market linkages. Banks bring structure, reach, governance and capital. Nigeria has tried versions of this before — the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme and the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme among them, and the experience taught us both the promise of public-private agricultural finance and the discipline it demands: such partnerships work only when they are designed with rigour, governed transparently, and judged by outcomes rather than by money disbursed.

For those of us whose responsibilities include the public sector, the most valuable role a bank can play is often not as lender of last resort but as honest broker, aligning the ambitions of government, the capital of development partners, and the needs of the farmer into structures that actually move money to the field, and the prize is larger than risk management. It is tempting, faced with advancing desert and shrinking water, to speak of the Sahel and the rural North only in the language of crisis. However, that language is incomplete and self-fulfilling. The same regions hold vast arable land, established value chains in grains, livestock and horticulture, and one of the youngest workforces on earth. When a young person can finance an irrigated dry-season crop, or a women’s cooperative can secure inputs and a guaranteed buyer, agriculture stops being a fallback and becomes a future. That shift — from relief to investment, from managing decline to financing growth — is the single most powerful contribution finance can make to the regions on the climate front line. It is also good business: the young and the underserved are not a market to be pitied, but the largest growth opportunity in African banking.

Where we choose to stand

At Union Bank, this is not a new conviction. An institution that has banked Nigerian communities for more than a century has watched the relationship between people and land change in real time and has come to regard agricultural finance not as a niche or an act of charity, but as national infrastructure — and, increasingly, as climate infrastructure. The question we put to ourselves is not whether agriculture is worth financing, but how to finance it in a way that builds resilience rather than extends credit, and how to do so at the scale the moment now demands.

The campaign behind this year’s World Environment Day speaks of the signals the Earth is sending us, and the signals we choose to send back. It is an apt frame for a banker. For too long, the signal our financial system sent the farmer was a quiet, discouraging one: you are too risky, too small, too far away to be worth our capital. The farmer heard it clearly, and many of his children left the land. We can now send a different signal.

“For Climate” and “For Our Future” are not phrases to be admired from a distance. For Nigeria and its neighbours, there are decisions to be made at home in how we price risk, where we direct capital, and whether we are finally willing to stand behind the people who have been reading nature’s signals all along. The most meaningful climate commitment our financial sector can make this World Environment Day is not a statement; it is a willingness to finance the land that feeds us, intelligently and at scale. The moment, as the campaign rightly insists, is now. Now for climate — and, just as urgently, now for the farmer.

Mannir U. Ringim is Executive Director, Business Banking at Union Bank of Nigeria, with responsibility for the Public Sector and the Bank’s Northern, South-South and South-East businesses.

He is versatile in spearheading new business development, cultivating partnerships,

and fostering healthy stakeholder relationships, with a focus on driving business growth and achieving revenue milestones.

Mannir’s educational qualifications include a PhD in Economics (focus on Financial Inclusion) from Bayero University, Kano, and Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Economics from the same institution. He also holds executive certifications from INSEAD Business School in Singapore, Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, and Euromoney in London, reflecting his dedication to continuous growth and excellence. Mannir has been an Honorary Senior Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (HCIB) since 2015.

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 Nigeria’s credit rating industry is undergoing a gradual but notable structural shift as local agencies expand their influence in a sector historically dominated by foreign rating institutions.

The evolving landscape has sparked renewed debate among financial experts over whether domestic firms can eventually match global benchmarks in methodology, scale, and investor trust.

Industry observers say the shift reflects broader changes in Nigeria’s capital markets, including rising domestic debt issuance, increasing demand for localized credit intelligence, and early-stage discussions around a more Africa-driven rating architecture.

Local agencies such as DataPro Limited and Agusto & Co are steadily expanding their analytical coverage across corporate, financial institution, and public sector exposures. However, global comparability remains a key challenge, analysts note.

Regional player GCR Ratings continues to maintain a broader continental footprint, underscoring the competitive pressure facing Nigerian firms seeking to scale beyond domestic relevance.

Expert Reactions

Celestine Ukpong: “Credibility Must Be Earned, Not Assumed”

Economist Celestine Ukpong told The Ameh News that while Nigeria’s local credit rating industry is evolving, leadership in the sector cannot be achieved without long-term market validation.

“The real issue is credibility accumulation over time. Credit ratings must be tested against actual market outcomes before they can be trusted at scale,” Ukpong said.

“Local agencies are improving, but global comparability and independence remain the defining barriers.”

He added that Africa’s fragmented financial systems make it difficult for a single agency to dominate, suggesting instead a “multi-agency ecosystem with shared standards.”

Peter Adebayo, FCA: “Data Integrity Will Decide Market Winners”

Chartered accountant and financial analyst Peter Adebayo emphasized that data quality and governance discipline will determine which agencies survive long-term competition.

“Credit rating is fundamentally a data discipline. If the underlying data is weak or inconsistent, the rating becomes questionable regardless of methodology,” Adebayo said.

“Foreign agencies still hold an advantage in historical datasets and global comparability frameworks.”

He noted that Nigerian agencies must invest heavily in data infrastructure, auditability, and transparency if they intend to compete internationally.

Market Analytics & Structural Insights

1. Rising Domestic Debt Complexity

Nigeria’s expanding bond market and sub-national borrowing needs are increasing demand for localized credit assessment tools tailored to domestic fiscal realities.

2. Gradual Investor Dual-Tracking

Institutional investors are increasingly comparing local credit research outputs with global ratings to reduce information asymmetry in pricing risk.

3. Methodology Gap Remains Critical

Despite progress, foreign agencies maintain dominance due to deeper default-cycle datasets, standardized global benchmarks, and multi-decade comparative models.

4. Emerging African Rating Architecture

Ongoing discussions around the proposed African Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) suggest a potential structural shift toward Africa-driven credit evaluation standards.

Outlook

Analysts caution that while Nigeria’s local rating agencies are gaining visibility, long-term leadership will depend on three core pillars: methodological transparency, institutional independence, and cross-border credibility validation.

Without these, experts warn, domestic firms may remain influential locally but struggle to displace established global benchmarks in sovereign and cross-border assessments.

Nigeria’s credit rating industry is evolving as local agencies expand influence. Experts Celestine Ukpong and Peter Adebayo FCA assess challenges facing domestic firms against foreign dominance.

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As part of efforts to adhere to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria’s (FAAN) commitment to aviation awareness, youth development, and stakeholders engagement, students of Springfield Schools Port Harcourt visited the International Terminal of Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo International Airport (PHIA) for an educational guided tour.

The students who were taken through critical operational areas of the airport for practical insights into airport procedures, passenger facilitation processes were exposed to the complexities of airport and aviation operations.

The students were conducted round facilities at the airport by Aviation Security (AVSEC) personnel, alongside representatives of relevant airport agencies

The personnel enlightened the students on their respective roles in safeguarding airport infrastructure, ensuring passenger safety, and maintaining seamless operational efficiency.

The tour also exposed the students to domestic and international passenger processing procedures, security screening systems, and airline operations, providing them with a broader understanding of the coordinated processes that underpin safe, secure, and efficient air transportation.

Highlight of the visit was an interactive quiz session designed to evaluate the students’ comprehension of the knowledge acquired during the tour.

Outstanding participants were presented with FAAN-branded souvenirs by the DGM/HOD Aviation Security Services (AVSEC), Mr. Chiaka Stephen Ukegbu, in recognition of their exceptional performance.

The excursion served as an enriching educational experience, fostering a deeper appreciation of the aviation sector while underscoring FAAN’s unwavering commitment to public engagement, aviation education, and nurturing the next generation of aviation professionals.

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Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals has increased its crude oil processing capacity to 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) in a performance test conducted by the Process Licensors, marking a significant milestone in the facility’s operational expansion and further cementing its position as World’s Largest Single Train Petroleum Refinery.

The increase sees the refinery surpass its nameplate capacity of 650,000 bpd, underlining the facility’s engineering capability and operational efficiency. The achievement demonstrates the refinery’s ability to process additional feedstock while optimizing performance across its production units.

Vice-President for oil and Gas, Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin explained that the ramp-up is part of a broader, ambitious strategy to more than double capacity to 1.4 million bpd within 30 months, positioning the facility as potentially the largest refinery globally.

According to him; the expansion is expected to boost Nigeria’s energy self-sufficiency, eliminate the country’s dependence on imported refined products and strengthen its position as a regional export hub pointing out that the Refinery’s growth trajectory reflects a deliberate move toward continental and global refining dominance, not just domestic supply sufficiency.

Owned by Nigerian industrialist and philanthropist, Aliko Dangote, the refinery commenced fuel production in 2024 and has steadily increased output of petrol, diesel, aviation fuel and other refined petroleum products. The facility has rapidly established itself as a major supplier to both domestic and international markets, exporting refined petroleum products to several African countries and key European destinations, including the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands, among others. It has supplied gasoline to the American market and jet fuel to Saudi Arabia among others.

Dangote Refinery has strengthened its role as a stabilizer in the oil and gas industry given the on-going disruptions caused by the Middle-East tension as a result of which many African countries are now patronizing the Refinery for energy security.

In a further demonstration of its growing global significance, Dangote Petroleum Refinery became the world’s largest exporter of jet fuel in April, according to S&P Global Commodities.

The refinery has played a pivotal role in stabilizing fuel supplies in Nigeria, helping to eliminate dependence on imported petroleum products and easing pressure on the country’s foreign exchange reserves. Its expansion also aligns with broader national objectives to enhance local refining capacity and maximize value from Nigeria’s abundant crude oil resources.

Growing production volumes have also attracted increased interest from global crude suppliers and commodity trading firms, with the refinery sourcing feedstock from both domestic and international producers to sustain its rising output.

Looking ahead, Aliko Dangote has outlined ambitious plans to transform the facility into the world’s largest refinery by 2028, targeting a processing capacity of 1.4 million barrels per day. Such expansion is expected to deliver substantial economic benefits, including job creation, increased industrial activity and improved trade balances.

The refinery is also expected to strengthen downstream manufacturing by ensuring a reliable supply of LPG and other key industrial feedstocks, including polypropylene which are widely used in the production of packaging materials and other consumer goods as well as the future plan for the supply of Linear Alkylbenzene (LAB) used in the production of detergents.

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Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc (STI) has reinforced its financial position and regulatory compliance credentials by successfully depositing N1.5 billion with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), fulfilling the statutory requirement imposed by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) under the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025.
The payment, completed before the May 31, 2026 deadline, represents 10 per cent of the minimum regulatory capital required for non-life insurance operators and positions the company among insurers proactively responding to the ongoing industry recapitalisation programme.
The development comes at a pivotal time for Nigeria’s insurance sector as operators race to meet stricter capital thresholds designed to improve underwriting capacity, strengthen policyholder protection, enhance corporate governance, and boost investor confidence.
Strategic Move in Recapitalisation Journey
The N1.5 billion statutory deposit marks another significant step in STI’s broader capital enhancement strategy.
The insurer recently launched a Rights Issue aimed at raising N5 billion in fresh capital from existing shareholders. Opened on May 4, 2026, the offer involves the issuance of 2.51 billion ordinary shares at N2.00 per share, allowing shareholders to subscribe for three new shares for every 17 shares held as of March 17, 2026.
The Rights Issue is expected to close on June 10, 2026, providing an additional avenue for strengthening the company’s balance sheet and supporting future expansion plans.
Industry analysts note that insurers capable of meeting recapitalisation requirements early are likely to enjoy stronger investor confidence and improved market positioning as the sector enters a new phase of consolidation and competition.
Why the Deposit Matters
The statutory deposit requirement serves as a financial safeguard, ensuring insurance companies maintain sufficient capital buffers to meet claims obligations and absorb operational risks.
For STI, the successful remittance demonstrates financial readiness and signals management’s confidence in the company’s long-term growth prospects.
STI, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Lucas Durojaiye, described the milestone as a critical achievement in the company’s transformation journey.
According to him, the deposit underscores STI’s commitment to regulatory compliance, financial solvency, and sustainable value creation for shareholders and policyholders alike.
He said the accomplishment would further strengthen stakeholder confidence while positioning the company to compete effectively within Nigeria and across emerging African insurance markets.
Industry-Wide Reform Gathering Pace
The insurance recapitalisation programme is one of the most ambitious reforms undertaken by NAICOM in recent years.
The initiative seeks to create stronger, more resilient insurance institutions capable of underwriting large-scale risks, supporting national economic growth, and reducing dependence on foreign insurers for complex risks.
Market observers believe companies that successfully complete recapitalisation exercises will be better positioned to leverage opportunities arising from infrastructure development, oil and gas investments, aviation expansion, agriculture financing, and emerging digital insurance markets.
Analysts Weigh In
Speaking on the development with The Ameh News, economist Celestine Ukpong said STI’s early compliance reflects growing recognition among insurers that regulatory reforms are no longer optional but fundamental to survival and competitiveness.
“Meeting the statutory deposit requirement ahead of schedule sends a positive signal to investors and policyholders. It demonstrates financial discipline and indicates that the company understands the direction of regulatory reforms. Institutions that move early are likely to gain strategic advantages as market confidence increasingly shifts toward well-capitalised insurers,” he said.
Also reacting, financial analyst Peter Adebayo, FCA, noted that the combination of the N1.5 billion statutory deposit and the ongoing N5 billion Rights Issue suggests a deliberate strategy to strengthen the company’s capital adequacy position.
“Capital is becoming the defining factor in the next phase of insurance industry competition. Beyond regulatory compliance, stronger capital allows insurers to underwrite bigger risks, invest in technology, improve claims settlement capacity, and pursue sustainable growth. STI appears to be positioning itself for that future,” he stated.
Looking Ahead
As the recapitalisation deadline approaches for other operators, STI’s achievement highlights the increasing momentum behind insurance sector reforms.
The company says it will continue pursuing initiatives aimed at enhancing operational efficiency, driving innovation, expanding market reach, and delivering superior insurance solutions while maintaining its reputation for prompt claims settlement and sound corporate governance.
For stakeholders across the insurance ecosystem, the successful deposit serves as an indicator that Nigeria’s recapitalisation programme is beginning to reshape the industry’s financial landscape, with stronger and more resilient institutions expected to emerge from the exercise.
Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc has fulfilled NAICOM’s recapitalisation requirement by depositing N1.5 billion with the CBN while pursuing a N5 billion Rights Issue to strengthen its capital base and market competitiveness.

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Nigeria has secured a strategic leadership position in Africa’s aviation future following the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) commitment of $7 billion to the Integrated Aviation Transformation Programme (IATP), a landmark initiative aimed at modernizing the continent’s aviation ecosystem, expanding connectivity, attracting investment, and accelerating economic integration.

The breakthrough was formalized during the AfDB Annual Meetings in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, where Nigeria signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with the continental lender, paving the way for large-scale aviation infrastructure financing and sector reforms.

The agreement positions Nigeria as a pilot country and implementation hub for the programme, while Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, SAN, was appointed African Champion of the Integrated Aviation Transformation Programme, placing the country at the center of efforts to reshape Africa’s aviation industry.

The AfDB’s commitment is expected to support airport modernization, aircraft financing, aviation infrastructure upgrades, cargo logistics development, and institutional reforms designed to improve the competitiveness of African airlines and airports.

A Strategic Opportunity for Africa

The IATP was conceived to address long-standing structural weaknesses that have limited Africa’s participation in global aviation despite its growing population and economic potential.

According to AfDB and aviation industry data, Africa is home to nearly 18 percent of the world’s population, yet African airlines account for less than three percent of global air traffic. This gap has continued to hinder intra-African trade, tourism growth, business mobility, and regional integration.

The programme seeks to reverse this trend by mobilizing public and private capital, strengthening aviation infrastructure, improving regional air connectivity, and de-risking investments across the aviation value chain.

Nigeria has already completed the IATP country survey, advanced its Country Compact framework, identified aircraft financing opportunities, and commenced discussions on establishing a Nigerian Aviation Financing Platform to unlock long-term funding for airlines and aviation-related projects.

Industry observers believe the initiative could significantly improve access to affordable financing for local carriers, encourage fleet expansion, boost airport infrastructure development, and position Nigeria as a regional center for aviation finance and maintenance services.

Economic Significance

Reacting to the development in an interview with The Ameh News, economist Celestine Ukpong described the AfDB-backed programme as one of the most significant economic diversification opportunities available to Nigeria outside the oil sector.

According to him, aviation remains a critical catalyst for economic development because it supports trade, tourism, investment flows, logistics, and job creation.

“The significance of this initiative goes beyond aviation infrastructure. What we are seeing is the emergence of a new economic growth platform. Efficient air transport systems improve productivity, lower transaction costs, expand market access, and stimulate investment across multiple sectors of the economy.”

Ukpong noted that positioning Nigeria as a pilot country gives it a strategic advantage in attracting future aviation-related investments from global financial institutions and private investors.

“The AfDB’s decision reflects confidence in Nigeria’s market size, geographic position, and reform trajectory. If properly implemented, the programme could strengthen Nigeria’s role as West Africa’s commercial gateway while creating thousands of direct and indirect jobs.”

He further argued that improved connectivity would support the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) by facilitating easier movement of goods, services, and people across borders.

Leadership and Governance Will Determine Success

Also speaking with The Ameh News, veteran journalist, leadership coach, and lecturer at the Lagos Business School, Dr. Akin Olaniyan, said the appointment of Festus Keyamo as African Champion of the programme represents both an opportunity and a responsibility for Nigeria.

Olaniyan, who has over three decades of experience in journalism, media leadership, and governance advocacy, said the real test would be translating ambitious plans into measurable outcomes.

“Large-scale development programmes succeed when leadership, execution, transparency, and stakeholder collaboration work together. The appointment of Nigeria as a pilot country elevates the country’s profile, but it also increases expectations.”

He noted that many African infrastructure projects have historically struggled because of weak implementation mechanisms rather than a lack of funding.

“The challenge is not always securing financing; it is ensuring that projects are executed efficiently, monitored transparently, and aligned with long-term national objectives. Nigeria now has an opportunity to demonstrate that transformational infrastructure programmes can be delivered successfully.”

Olaniyan added that the aviation sector’s transformation could become a powerful symbol of Africa’s capacity to lead its own development agenda.

“Aviation is about more than airports and aircraft. It is about connectivity, economic inclusion, innovation, and national competitiveness. If Nigeria succeeds under this framework, the impact will be felt far beyond the aviation industry.”

Looking Ahead

The AfDB’s $7 billion commitment marks one of the most ambitious aviation-focused financing initiatives ever undertaken on the continent.

For Nigeria, the agreement represents more than an infrastructure investment. It signals growing international confidence in the country’s aviation reform agenda and reinforces its ambition to become a leading aviation, logistics, and transportation hub for Africa.

With aviation demand projected to rise steadily across the continent over the coming decades, stakeholders believe successful implementation of the Integrated Aviation Transformation Programme could redefine Africa’s air transport landscape while positioning Nigeria at the forefront of the sector’s next phase of growth.

Nigeria has been named a pilot country for AfDB’s $7 billion Integrated Aviation Transformation Programme, positioning the nation as a continental aviation hub. Experts say the initiative could drive investment, connectivity, and economic growth across Africa.

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The appointment was formalized at a working meeting held today between NAICOM and EY in Abuja, as part of the Commission’s ongoing Risk-Based Capital Implementation project.

Speaking at the meeting, the Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Olusegun Ayo Omosehin, said the Commission has been progressively transitioning the Nigerian insurance sector toward a risk-based supervisory regime and capital structure. “This strategic shift is aimed at strengthening financial stability and enhancing policyholder protection across the industry,” he stated.

He noted that following the recent enactment of enabling legislation and the ongoing Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR) recapitalization exercise, NAICOM has accelerated efforts to operationalize an RBC framework tailored to the Nigerian insurance market.

The Commissioner explained that deployment of the RBC framework will be aligned with the conclusion of the current MCR exercise. Key next steps include Quantitative Impact Studies (QIS) and industry-wide data collection in the coming weeks. These will support recalibration of key parameters, deepen stakeholder engagement, and inform the issuance of the final framework alongside comprehensive regulatory guidelines.

Under the engagement, EY will support NAICOM to accelerate implementation, strengthen internal technical capacity, and ensure the resulting regulatory framework is robust, transparent, and fit for purpose within the Nigerian market context.

In response, EY reaffirmed its commitment to delivering the assignment as a priority engagement. The firm will work closely with NAICOM and relevant stakeholders to develop a practical, implementable RBC framework and the necessary supporting tools for effective execution.

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The International Finance Corporation (IFC), Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX Group), and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) have unveiled the Nigeria Gender Country Program (NGCP) at a high-level virtual CEO Roundtable convened to advance private sector action on gender equality and inclusive economic growth.

The session brought together chief executives and senior business leaders from NGX-listed companies, IFC client organisations, and LCCI member companies to introduce the programme’s strategic framework, align stakeholders around a shared agenda, and mobilise support ahead of its formal launch.

The NGCP builds on the momentum of Nigeria2Equal and other initiatives that have advanced workplace inclusion, women’s leadership, entrepreneurship, and sustainable finance across Nigeria’s private sector. Designed as a more integrated and collaborative platform, the programme seeks to scale impact through coordinated action among development institutions, business leaders, regulators, and the organised private sector.

Anchored on three strategic priorities, the programme aims to increase women’s representation in leadership, improve access to quality employment, and expand access to productive assets—including finance, technology, and markets—for women and women-led businesses.

Delivering the keynote address, Dr. Emomotimi Agama, Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), underscored the private sector’s critical role in accelerating gender-inclusive growth.

“Gender inclusion is fundamentally an economic growth imperative. Closing gender gaps can unlock billions of dollars in value for Nigeria while strengthening business performance and national competitiveness. We must therefore move beyond viewing inclusion as a corporate social responsibility initiative or compliance exercise, and instead recognise it as a strategic driver of productivity, innovation, and sustainable economic growth,” he said.

Commenting on the initiative, Temi Popoola, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of NGX Group, described the NGCP as a strategic platform for scaling women’s economic participation through stronger collaboration among the private sector, development institutions, and market stakeholders.

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“The Nigeria Gender Country Program presents a significant opportunity to deepen impact and accelerate progress across corporate Nigeria. By expanding women’s access to leadership opportunities, quality employment, finance, technology, and markets, we can unlock substantial economic value while building a more competitive, inclusive, and resilient private sector. At NGX Group, we believe the capital market has a critical role to play in advancing these outcomes through stronger governance, transparency, and stakeholder engagement,” he said.

Also speaking at the session, Christian Mulamula, IFC Head of Office in Lagos, highlighted the strong business case for gender inclusion.

“Closing the gender gap is one of the most significant opportunities to strengthen competitiveness and productivity. Across Africa, gender inequality is estimated to cost up to $2.5 trillion. Through the Nigeria Gender Country Program, IFC is working with the private sector to expand women’s leadership, improve access to better jobs, and increase opportunities for women-led businesses. Building on Nigeria2Equal, this initiative focuses on practical, measurable solutions that help businesses grow while advancing inclusive growth,” he said.

In her remarks, Dr. Chinyere Almona, Director General of LCCI, noted that the programme’s success would depend on leadership accountability and sustained commitment from business leaders, particularly in embedding gender inclusion into organisational strategy and execution.

The partners are expected to formally launch the Nigeria Gender Country Program at a physical event scheduled for July 9, 2026, where stakeholders will further advance implementation of the programme’s strategic priorities.

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