Nigeria’s capital market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, has inaugurated a Capital Market Working Group on Market Liquidity tasked with attracting up to 20 million new investors through technology-enabled solutions.
Director-General Emomotimi Agama, who launched the initiative in Abuja on Friday, said expanding investor participation is critical to strengthening liquidity, resilience, and capital allocation efficiency within the financial system. He emphasized that although market capitalization has grown significantly in recent years, active participation remains concentrated among a relatively small segment of institutional and retail investors.
According to Agama, a narrow investor base weakens the market’s ability to distribute capital efficiently, since trading volumes become dominated by a limited pool of participants. He charged the new working group to design technology-driven pathways that will transform millions of passive savers into active market participants.
He noted that the Commission intends to leverage digital platforms and partnerships with financial technology firms to simplify onboarding, reduce entry barriers, and improve retail access to investment products. Existing reforms such as the dematerialisation of share certificates are already aimed at modernizing market infrastructure and lowering friction in securities ownership.
Regulatory Developments
Agama also highlighted regulatory developments under the Investments and Securities Act 2025, which now brings digital assets within the Commission’s supervisory scope. He said the framework creates an opportunity to redirect speculative funds currently flowing into unregulated activities toward transparent, productive investments listed on regulated exchanges.
“We must accept that the lines between traditional finance and digital finance are blurring,” he said, stressing that the Commission’s goal is to channel speculative capital into liquid instruments that support real economic growth.
Market analysts say the initiative reflects a broader policy push to deepen Nigeria’s financial markets by expanding retail participation, digitizing investment processes, and strengthening regulatory confidence — all factors viewed as essential for improving liquidity and long-term capital formation.
