Category: Business Day

Former Imo State governor Rochas Okorocha has said the new Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide headquarters in Enugu will be completed and handed over to the organisation within the next three to four weeks.

Okorocha, who financed and facilitated the construction of the new headquarters, said the remaining work included the removal of the existing structure and completion of the landscaping before the facility could be formally handed over.

He spoke on Tuesday during a visit by Peter Mbah, governor of Enugu State, to inspect the new headquarters, which is nearing completion.

According to Okorocha, the building was conceived after he visited the old Ohanaeze secretariat several years ago and concluded that the facility was inadequate for the organisation.

‘I was here some years ago and I saw the building called the Igbo Secretary. I felt that it was not sufficient enough, so I decided to seek permission from Ohanaeze and put up this building for my people,’ he said.

Okorocha said the project was not driven by personal wealth or an attempt to showcase affluence, but by his desire to create a permanent institutional home for the Igbo socio-cultural organisation. ‘It is simply my heart speaking, the heart of love for my people,’ he said.

He said the new headquarters should provide Ohanaeze with a stronger platform to articulate the interests of Igbo people and change what he described as longstanding misconceptions about the group.

‘We have often been misunderstood and misrepresented by the entire world. This is the time to correct that and let the world know who we are: that we are peace-loving people, hardworking people and people who love progress,’ the former governor stated.

Four-week handover

The former governor said the physical structure was substantially complete, with landscaping and the removal of the old structure among the remaining tasks.

‘I think that in about three or four weeks, this place will be ready. The Ohanaeze president-general and the governor of the state will arrange the commissioning,’ he said.

The former governor said his role would end with the formal handover of the facility to Ohanaeze, after which the organisation and the state government would determine how the remaining aspects of the project would be handled.

For Okorocha, the ultimate measure of the project is not simply the size or appearance of the building, but what future generations make of it.

‘I want young Igbo people who encounter the facility in the next 15 years to 20 years to leave with a stronger understanding of their roots and identity and I want the pride of being Igbo to be restored,’ he added.

Senator John Azuta-Mbata, president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, described the project as a significant contribution to the organisation and the wider Igbo community.

He thanked Okorocha and the Rochas Foundation for what he described as a deliberate effort to provide a permanent institutional facility for Ohanaeze.

‘We are already at the threshold of opening this building,’ Azuta-Mbata said, adding that the facility would stand as a legacy for future leadership of the organisation.

He said the headquarters would strengthen Ohanaeze’s ability to represent, support and defend the interests of Igbo people. ‘This will remain and stand as a legacy to the General Assembly and the leadership of Ohanaeze to continue doing everything we can to protect the ideals of the organisation,’ he said.

More than an administrative headquarters

The new building is being designed to serve functions beyond conventional administrative offices.

Uloma Rochas-Nwosu, managing director of Walsh Blanc, the design firm involved in the project, said the facility was conceived as a space that would combine administration, cultural preservation, education and public engagement.

She said Okorocha’s plan was to create a building that would tell the story of the Igbo people while providing a sense of pride and belonging.

One of the key features is a memorabilia section in the basement, where audiovisual materials, artworks, documentaries and historical information are expected to preserve and communicate aspects of Igbo history.

The facility also includes about 11 offices, including offices for the president-general, deputy president-general, an ICT office and conference rooms.

Rochas-Nwosu said the building’s design incorporated seven pillars and seven lights, representing the seven Igbo-speaking states.

The project also includes two amphitheatres, one of which incorporates Igbo-themed imagery, while red and white elements have been used to reflect aspects of Igbo heritage.

‘The idea is that the walls themselves will speak to you when you come in. You should get a sense that you are in the Igbo nation and understand what the space represents,’ she said.

For Okorocha, however, the significance of the new headquarters extends beyond its physical structure.

He said he expects the secretariat to develop a stronger role in supporting Igbos living outside Nigeria, particularly those who encounter legal or other difficulties abroad.

‘The organisation should be positioned to intervene when Igbo people in countries such as China, the United States and Singapore face problems. Many of our children have been molested abroad, maltreated, jailed and imprisoned, and they often appear to have nobody to cater for them or speak on their behalf.

‘So this secretariat is going to take a new direction. It is not only about Igbos here; it is mostly about Igbos in the diaspora, giving them a sense of belonging,’ he affirmed.

He said he expected the Ohanaeze leadership to use the new headquarters as a bridge between the organisation and Igbo communities across the world.

Peter Mbah, who inspected the facility, said the project represented a reminder of the shared roots of Igbo people and the need for greater unity.

He commended the Okorocha for the project, adding that the location of the facility in Enugu was significant given the state’s position within the Igbo cultural and institutional landscape.

Mbah said he expected the formal commissioning to take place in the coming days or weeks once the remaining work was completed.

With construction now at its final stage, the focus has shifted from building the physical structure to determining how Ohanaeze will use the new facility to expand its administrative, cultural and diaspora-facing functions after the planned handover.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Tuesday, cut its benchmark interest rate- the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) to 23%, the lowest level in 31 months, while overhauling the framework around it in a bid to reconnect monetary policy with rates in the money market, and not an easing of its restrictive stance.

The CBN’S Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) cut the monetary policy rate from 27.5% and recalibrated its standing facilities corridor to +50/-300 basis points around the MPR at its Sept. 21-22 meeting in Abuja.

It kept cash reserve requirements unchanged at 45% for deposit money banks, 16% for merchant banks and 75% for non-TSA public-sector deposits.

Olayemi Cardoso, CBN governor, said the more significant issue behind the decision was a disconnect between the policy rate and the rates at which banks were actually trading, which had weakened the transmission of monetary policy through the financial system.

‘We have a firm belief that it is not working as effectively as it should,’ Cardoso said of the transmission mechanism during a press briefing after the meeting. ‘The rates at which the interbank is working are disconnected from the MPR. And there’s a need to fix that.’

The recalibration is intended to restore the MPR as the principal signal of monetary policy as the CBN moves toward an inflation-targeting framework.

Cardoso said the latest move should not be viewed as a signal that the central bank is abandoning its restrictive stance. Rather, the bank wants its policy settings to work more effectively now that the economic environment is more stable.

The move marks an effort to address a technical problem that had become increasingly important as the CBN sought to make its monetary-policy framework more market-driven.

A policy rate is most effective when changes in it are transmitted to borrowing costs and other market rates. The CBN said the divergence between the MPR and prevailing market rates had weakened that link.

Cardoso said the decision was possible because the economic backdrop has changed substantially following a period of aggressive monetary tightening. Inflation has moderated, the foreign-exchange market has stabilised, and external buffers have strengthened, giving the central bank greater room to repair the mechanics of monetary policy without abandoning its focus on price stability.

‘Fundamentals have changed,’ Cardoso said. ‘We are at macroeconomic stability.’

Headline inflation slowed to 15.39% in August from 15.43% a month earlier, while food inflation fell to 19.57% from 20.31%. Core inflation declined to 13.29% from 14.97%. On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation eased to 0.71% from 1.57%.

The 12-month moving average of headline inflation also fell to 16.30% in August from 16.89% in July, extending its decline to 20 consecutive months.

The economy is also expanding at a faster pace, as real gross domestic product grew 4.43% in the second quarter from 3.89% in the first, with growth accelerating in both the oil and non-oil sectors. The oil sector expanded 7.31%, while non-oil growth rose to 4.31%. Cardoso said the CBN’s projection is that domestic output will likely remain resilient through the rest of the year.

The policy reset comes as the central bank continues to repair its monetary-policy operating framework. The governor said the adoption of

Nigerian Overnight Financing Rate (NOFA) as a transaction-based operational benchmark has improved transparency in money-market operations and should help align policy implementation more closely with market conditions.

‘This is a reset and a recalibration. That is all it is,’ he said.

MPC also sees inflation continuing to moderate in the short to medium term, helped by exchange-rate stability, the lagged impact of previous tightening and improving food supplies during the harvest season. It flagged prolonged geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and election-related spending as risks to the inflation outlook.

The committee also pointed to stronger external and fiscal-monetary coordination. Nigeria’s balance-of-payments surplus widened to $3.51 billion in the second quarter from $2.38 billion in the first, while the current-account surplus rose 67.9% to $7.54 billion from $4.49 billion.

Gross foreign reserves stood at $55.25 billion as of Sept. 18, the highest level in 18 years and enough to cover about 11.3 months of imports of goods and services.

The CBN also cited stronger banks following the completion of its recapitalisation program, saying higher capital buffers should improve the industry’s capacity to finance longer-term investment.

Global risks, however, remain a concern, especially as global growth is expected to slow to 3% this year from 3.5% in 2025, with the Middle East conflict, trade-policy uncertainty and elevated energy prices weighing on the outlook. Renewed geopolitical tensions could also delay the normalisation of monetary policy globally.

For Nigeria, Cardoso said the improvement in stability was central to the timing of the reset, after earlier policy measures had helped reduce pressure on the foreign-exchange market and improve investor confidence.

‘It couldn’t be a better time to do it than now, when things are stable,’ he stressed.

According to him, the CBN will assess the effectiveness of the recalibrated corridor in strengthening policy transmission, with future decisions remaining data-dependent.

In his reaction after the policy announcement, Uche Uwaleke, a financial economist and capital-market professor at Nasarawa State University, Keffi, said the MPC’s decision was justified by the improving macroeconomic environment.

He cited moderating inflation, exchange-rate stability, improved foreign-exchange market liquidity and the accumulation of external reserves as factors supporting the rate cut.

Uwaleke also pointed to the recently signed memorandum of understanding between the finance minister and the CBN governor on fiscal and monetary policy coordination as a positive development.

Muda Yusuf, chief executive officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), also welcomed the recalibration, saying it was timely given the improving inflation trajectory and the cost of maintaining a highly restrictive monetary environment.

Yusuf, however, said the key test would be whether the lower policy rate translates into cheaper credit for businesses, noting that high financing costs have constrained investment, working capital and job creation.

He said banks should progressively reflect the new policy environment in lending rates, while warning that the CBN would need to manage potential exchange-rate and portfolio-flow risks as interest-rate differentials narrow.

He added that lower interest rates alone would not resolve Nigeria’s structural inflation pressures, pointing to energy costs, logistics bottlenecks, insecurity, food-production constraints and infrastructure deficits as issues requiring complementary fiscal and structural reforms.

‘I bought Dangote shares that are worth N42,000. I am expecting to cash out big time to buy something valuable, at least a piece of land in Imowe-Ibafo, Ogun State,’ said Ifeoluwa Balogun.

Balogun’s expectation captures the excitement around Dangote Refinery’s public offer, but the N2.15 trillion IPO is creating access to ownership, not a shortcut to wealth. With 4.1 billion shares offered at N525 each and a minimum subscription of just 10 shares, the offer is bringing equity ownership within reach of ordinary Nigerians. What happens to their money after the subscription, however, will depend on the refinery’s future earnings, cash generation and share-price performance.

For Balogun, N42,000 buys 80 shares before applicable charges. If the shares eventually reach N1,050, his holding would be worth N84,000. If they reach N5,250, it would be worth N420,000. Neither outcome has a timetable, and neither price is guaranteed.

That distinction is becoming important as the Dangote IPO draws first-time investors into Nigeria’s stock market. The offer is scheduled to close on October 13, with the minimum subscription set at N5,250.

Investors are buying a stake in a business that has recently demonstrated substantial earning power. Dangote Refinery reported $13.91 billion in revenue in the first half of 2026, alongside $2.60 billion in EBITDA and $1.82 billion in net profit, according to BusinessDay. The result marked a sharp turnaround from the loss recorded in 2025.

Those numbers explain the enthusiasm around the offer. But an equity investor is buying future earnings, not simply the latest six months of profit. The refinery operates in a volatile global business. Its earnings are exposed to crude-oil costs, refined-product prices, refining margins, foreign exchange, demand and international energy-market conditions. A strong first half does not guarantee that future periods will produce the same results.

The company’s future expansion also matters. Dangote says the refinery has crude-distillation capacity of 700,000 barrels per day and plans to expand that to 1.4 million barrels per day. The wider complex includes petrochemicals, storage, marine infrastructure and logistics.

For shareholders, therefore, the investment case extends well beyond the IPO. The value of their shares will depend on whether the company can sustain production, expand profitably, manage its financial obligations, generate cash and return value to shareholders. That makes the distance between owning shares and becoming wealthy important.

If Balogun’s 80 shares rise from N525 to N1,000, his holding would be worth N80,000. But that increase remains a market gain until he sells. If the market price falls below N525, the value of his investment falls instead. The investor therefore has to live with the market’s timing.

Someone who expects the shares to finance a land purchase within a particular period could be forced to sell earlier than planned, potentially at a price below expectation. The market does not adjust its timing to an investor’s financial needs.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has urged prospective investors to read the approved prospectus and understand the terms and risks before subscribing. It has also warned against people or platforms promising guaranteed allocations or returns.

The significance of the IPO is therefore broader than whether Dangote shares rise after listing. It is introducing more Nigerians to ownership of productive assets at a time when household incomes remain under pressure. But ownership comes with uncertainty: the investor participates in both the gains and the risks of the business.

For Balogun, the more useful question is not how quickly N42,000 can become enough to buy land. It is whether he can afford to hold the investment long enough for the underlying business to create value. The Dangote IPO can put ownership within reach of ordinary Nigerians. It cannot put a guaranteed fortune within reach overnight.

Agusto and Co. has upgraded the long-term credit rating of Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc from ‘Bbb+’ to ‘A-‘, with a stable outlook, in a major endorsement of the company’s strengthened financial position, robust capitalisation, improved underwriting performance and growing profitability.

The reputable rating agency also assigned the company a short-term rating of ‘A1′, with a stable outlook. The ratings, issued on 24 August 2026, are valid through 30 June 2027.

According to Agusto and Co., the upgrade reflects Mutual Benefits’ good financial condition and strong capacity to meet its obligations relative to other insurers operating in Nigeria. The assessment was supported by the company’s sound capitalisation, improved profitability, good liquidity profile, strong retail distribution network and experienced management team.

The upgrade represents a significant recognition of Mutual Benefits’ strengthened financial position and ongoing efforts to build a resilient, competitive and customer-focused insurance business.

A leading Nigerian insurance company with over three decades of operating experience, Mutual Benefits recorded substantial improvements in its capital and solvency position as of 31 December 2025.

The company’s shareholders’ funds increased by 41.8 percent year-on-year to ?33.9 billion, driven by reserve accretion arising from improved profitability. Net admissible assets stood at N30.3 billion, exceeding the stated N15 billion regulatory minimum for non-life underwriters under the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act 2025.

The company’s solvency margin stood at 512 percent, significantly above Agusto and Co.’s 100% benchmark. Meanwhile, its investment portfolio grew by 30.5 percent to N51.4 billion, with liquid assets accounting for 68.2 percent of the portfolio, supporting the company’s ability to meet claims obligations and maintain financial flexibility.

Equally important, Mutual Benefits recorded strong growth in its underwriting operations during the financial year ended 31 December 2025. Gross written premiums increased by 26.7 percent year-on-year to N52.7 billion, with motor insurance remaining the company’s largest underwriting segment, accounting for 34.4% of its portfolio.

Net claims declined by 6.3 percent, while the average loss ratio improved to 23 percent, compared with an estimated industry average of 27.4 percent for Nigeria’s non-life insurance sector.

Commenting on the rating upgrade, Femi Asenuga, managing director/CEO, Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc, said:

‘The upgrade of Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc’s long-term credit rating from ‘Bbb+’ to ‘A-‘ by Agusto and Co. is a significant milestone in our journey and a strong recognition of the financial resilience and disciplined execution that underpin our business. It reinforces the strength of our capital position, the progress we have made in improving our underwriting performance and our ability to deliver sustainable value in a dynamic operating environment.

‘More importantly, this recognition strengthens the confidence we seek to inspire among our policyholders who entrust us with the protection of their assets, businesses and aspirations. It also provides an important signal to our shareholders, brokers, partners and other stakeholders that Mutual Benefits is building a stronger, more resilient and sustainably competitive institution.

‘We remain focused on prudent risk management, excellent service delivery, innovation and responsible growth. As we move forward, our commitment is to continue strengthening the business, deepening customer trust and creating lasting value for all our stakeholders.’

Agusto and Co. expects the continued strengthening of Mutual Benefits’ underwriting activities, alongside a moderation in currency-related valuation swings, to support the company’s profitability in the near term.

In response to the evolving insurance landscape, Mutual Benefits continues to focus on strengthening its market position, deepening retail insurance penetration, improving customer experience and leveraging digital initiatives to enhance product accessibility, claims processing and decision-making.

The company’s strategic direction is anchored in delivering sustainable value to policyholders, shareholders, employees and business partners while reinforcing its position as a trusted protection partner.

The Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency (NPERA) can now impose tougher penalties on individuals and companies that breach port regulations, in a move the agency says will strengthen compliance and improve efficiency across the country’s seaports.

Pius Akutah, director-general of NPERA, formerly the Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC), said the new legal framework gives the regulator greater powers to sanction infractions than were available under the previous regime administered by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council.

The new framework provides for a minimum penalty of N500,000 for an individual first offender, while penalties can increase for repeat violations. Corporations can face penalties of up to N20 million, with NPERA able to multiply the penalty where a company continues to violate the law, Akutah said.

‘In the past, there was no such potency in our law, so we couldn’t enforce anything because the penalties were too insignificant to deter any infraction,’ Akutah said in Lagos during a meeting with the Shipping Correspondents Association of Nigeria (SCAN). ‘The aspects of the law on legal enforcement or criminal prosecution for infractions captured in the NPERA law will serve as deterrence,’ he added.

Akutah said the objective was not to disrupt port operations but to establish a regulatory regime in which operators comply with prescribed standards because of the consequences of non-compliance.

‘The idea is not to upset the system and make it chaotic or abnormal but rather to create a deterrent regime through the provisions of the law. With the fear of the consequences, they will play by the rules naturally,’ he said.

The regulator is also targeting greater automation and digitisation of port processes to reduce human interference and make compliance easier.

‘Ours is to set the standards and promote innovations and digitisation of this sector to the point that those standards become very easy for people to maintain,’ Akutah said.

He added that reducing bottlenecks and making port processes more seamless would ultimately lower the cost of moving goods through Nigerian ports.

‘Once these processes are seamless, it will reduce costs on its own. The cost component is very crucial to us,’ he said.

On concerns over multiple government agencies conducting physical inspections at the ports, Akutah said NPERA would not prevent agencies from carrying out their statutory responsibilities but insisted that such activities should not unnecessarily delay cargo clearance.

He said efficient and competitive ports were critical to the Federal Government’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy by 2030, arguing that the objective should be measured not only by government revenue but also by the expansion of businesses and economic activity.

‘If we are building a trillion-dollar economy, it is not only in terms of the amount of money that government will make but also the totality of the GDP of the economy that will promote that one trillion dollars,’ he said.

Akutah also dismissed concerns over a possible operational conflict between NPERA and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), saying the agencies have distinct mandates.

While the NPA is responsible for developing port infrastructure, including seaports and inland dry ports, NPERA is responsible for the economic regulation of the facilities, he said.

Moses Ebosele, president of SCAN, congratulated the agency on its new mandate and said effective regulation would require clear communication and continuous engagement with industry stakeholders.

‘We believe that effective regulation requires not only sound policies and enforcement, but also clear communication and continuous engagement with stakeholders,’ he said.

The Federal Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria have taken an important step by formalising fiscal-monetary policy coordination. But the significance of the September 18 agreement extends beyond the document itself: Nigeria needs stronger institutions if the gains of the past three years of economic reform are to become durable.

For too long, the credibility of economic policy has depended too heavily on whether different arms of government were moving in the same direction. A monetary authority can tighten policy to contain inflation, for instance, only for fiscal expansion or heavy government borrowing to create additional pressures on liquidity, interest rates and prices. That disconnect carries a cost.

‘The objective should be coordination without subordination. Fiscal and monetary authorities should be able to pursue their separate responsibilities while recognising that their decisions ultimately meet in the same economy. That is the promise of the new framework.’

Businesses find it harder to plan when major economic policies change direction or appear to work against one another. Investors demand a higher premium when they cannot be confident that today’s policy framework will remain broadly consistent tomorrow. And the central bank can be forced to work harder when fiscal policy is adding to the pressures monetary policy is trying to contain. The new framework offers an opportunity to change that.

The Finance Ministry and the CBN have different mandates, and that distinction should remain. The government must manage public finances and finance development, while the central bank is responsible for monetary and financial stability. Coordination should not mean that one institution dictates to the other. It should mean that both understand the consequences of their decisions for the other.

A government deciding how much to borrow should take account of the implications for liquidity, interest rates and private-sector credit. A central bank setting monetary policy should have a clear view of the government’s financing requirements, cash position and fiscal trajectory. That is not a theoretical concern.

The IMF estimates that interest payments absorbed 53.2 percent of Federal Government revenue in 2025, compared with 40.8 percent in 2024. It also estimates that banks’ holdings of government securities were equivalent to about 22 percent of their total assets. The figures show how closely government financing conditions are connected to the financial system and, ultimately, the availability of credit to businesses.

Better coordination will not eliminate those pressures. But it can help prevent fiscal and monetary decisions from unnecessarily amplifying them. This is particularly important as the CBN moves towards inflation targeting.

Inflation targeting requires more than setting an interest rate. It depends on credible communication, reliable data, sound monetary operations and a fiscal environment that does not systematically work against the inflation objective. The IMF has made the same point in assessing Nigeria’s transition towards the framework.

The September 18 agreement therefore represents a potentially important shift in how economic policy is organised. Nigeria’s problem has not always been a lack of economic policies. It has often been the inconsistency between policies or uncertainty about how one policy decision will interact with another. That is why institutionalisation matters.

Strong institutions create rules and processes that make policy less dependent on personalities and more dependent on established frameworks. They make it easier for businesses and investors to understand how government decisions are likely to interact. This is where credibility and trust become economic variables.

An investor deciding whether to commit capital to Nigeria is not looking only at today’s exchange rate or inflation rate. The investor is also asking whether the policy environment is sufficiently predictable to justify a long-term commitment. The same applies to a manufacturer deciding whether to expand capacity, a bank deciding how to allocate credit or a company deciding whether to invest in a new project.

Predictability reduces uncertainty. Lower uncertainty can improve the conditions for investment. Nigeria has made meaningful progress since 2023. The reform programme has included the removal of the fuel subsidy, exchange-rate reforms and tighter monetary policy. The IMF says these measures have strengthened macroeconomic stability, rebuilt external buffers and improved foreign-exchange market functioning.

Nigeria is also re-establishing links with international capital markets, with FTSE Russell’s restoration of the country to Frontier Market status and J.P. Morgan’s inclusion of Nigerian government securities in its new frontier local-currency bond index. These developments are not the result of the new fiscal-monetary coordination framework. They are evidence of why policy credibility now matters even more.

As Nigeria becomes more integrated with international capital markets, inconsistency becomes more costly. International investors can move capital quickly when they perceive a deterioration in policy credibility. Domestic businesses also adjust investment decisions when uncertainty rises. The answer is not to eliminate disagreement between economic institutions. Independent institutions should disagree when their mandates require it.

The objective should be coordination without subordination. Fiscal and monetary authorities should be able to pursue their separate responsibilities while recognising that their decisions ultimately meet in the same economy. That is the promise of the new framework.

But signing an MoU is only the beginning. Its credibility will depend on whether coordination becomes routine rather than exceptional: whether fiscal and monetary forecasts are genuinely shared, whether government financing decisions account for liquidity conditions, whether fiscal policy supports disinflation when necessary and whether both institutions communicate a coherent economic direction. The test will come when the interests of short-term policy collide with the demands of long-term stability.

Nigeria’s approaching election cycle, changing financing needs and exposure to external shocks will provide such moments. The strength of the framework will be measured not when economic conditions are favourable, but when difficult choices have to be made. That is when institutions matter most.

Nigeria has spent three years undertaking some of its most consequential economic reforms in decades. The next stage should be about building the institutional architecture that makes those reforms credible, predictable and durable. Strong institutions are not simply a governance objective. They are an economic asset.

If fiscal and monetary policy increasingly move in compatible directions, Nigeria can begin to replace policy uncertainty with greater predictability, and dependence on individual decisions with confidence in institutions. The September 18 agreement is a step in that direction. What matters now is whether Nigeria follows through.

Vessels spent longer at Nigerian ports in the first half of 2026, with average turnaround time rising to 5.3 days from 5.0 days a year earlier, according to a performance review by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

The 6 percent increase was classified as a ‘negative performance’ in the report, which was presented before the Nigeria Ports Consultative Council (NPCC) and excludes crude oil terminals.

Five of the seven ports covered recorded longer turnaround times during the period, even as vessel traffic, cargo throughput and container volumes increased.

Delta Port recorded the largest deterioration, with average turnaround time rising to 5.2 days from 3.4 days in the first half of 2025.

Lekki Port, Nigeria’s only deep seaport, which has recorded rapid growth in vessel traffic, saw turnaround time increase to 3.3 days from 2.1 days, a 57 percent rise. The increase coincides with a 48.4 percent rise in vessel calls at the port in the first half of the year.

At Tin Can Island Port, turnaround time increased to 5.1 days from 4.4 days, while Lagos Port Complex, which includes Apapa, recorded a marginal increase to 6.1 days from 5.9 days.

Calabar port also recorded a deterioration, with turnaround time rising to 6.1 days from 5.7 days.

Only Rivers and Onne ports recorded improvements.

Rivers Port reduced its average turnaround time to 8.1 days from 10 days, although it remained the slowest of the seven ports.

Onne improved to 3.3 days from 3.6 days despite a 26.6 percent increase in vessel traffic.

Gains under pressure

The slowdown at Apapa and Tin Can Island comes after both ports had been recognised for improvements in vessel performance over the previous five years.

The two ports were ranked among the 15 most-improved ports globally for vessel time between 2020 and 2025 in the World Bank’s Container Port Performance Index published in June.

Tin Can Island’s CPPI score improved by 42 points over the period, from -68 to -25.8, while Apapa’s improved by 35 points, from -61 to -26.4.

The NPA’s review comes as Nigerian ports handle growing volumes of maritime traffic. Total cargo throughput in January to June rose 12.2 percent to 68.3 million metric tonnes, from 60.8 million tonnes in the same period of 2025.

Vessel calls climbed 6.9 percent to 2,300 ships, while gross registered tonnage jumped 20.9 percent to 96.7 million.

The increase in turnaround time potentially adds to the cost of shipping and cargo handling. Current performance could affect future ratings.

Nigeria removed a petrol subsidy the way a patient goes under the knife for a diseased organ: with agony, but with the promise that the pain would eventually pass and the body would be healthier for it.

Three years on, President Bola Tinubu’s May 2023 subsidy removal has left the country’s economy scarred, with inflation biting, transport costs elevated, and households squeezed, triggering one of the country’s sharpest cost-of-living shocks

And now, as recovery limps along, a chorus of presidential aspirants for 2027 is proposing putting the diseased organ back inside the body

Never mind that the surgery happened because the organ was failing. Never mind that reinsertion carries its own risks, arguably worse than the original disease.

The pain of recovery has made the pain of the operation feel like the only pain that matters, and politicians are offering to reverse it.

This development is the emotional logic behind the subsidy-revival pledges now anchoring at least two campaigns ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election.

Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, has made restoring a ‘targeted’ subsidy his signature promise, framing it as a production-linked scheme, crude sold cheap to domestic refiners who would, in turn, sell refined fuel cheap to consumers.

Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress has gone further, arguing that Nigeria never really escaped subsidy in the first place, that propping up the naira and cushioning fuel costs amounts to the same thing under a different name.

Both men are betting that a population still nursing subsidy-removal pain will vote for the anaesthetic, but BusinessDay’s findings showed the anaesthetic itself may be unaffordable.

The arithmetic of putting it back

For most analysts, the question a subsidy revival campaign owes voters is who pays the difference between what petrol actually costs and what government wants Nigerians to pay for it?

Data gleaned from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) showed Nigeria’s average daily petrol consumption hovers at 51 million litres in April 2026.

A visit to Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Limited) petrol stations showed the retail price of petrol currently at N1390 in Lagos and N1400 in Abuja.

Suppose a revived subsidy dropped the effective pump price back toward the N500-N600 range last seen as politically tolerable before 2023, the zone Atiku’s campaign gestures toward when it talks of crude-for-refined-product arrangements that make fuel ‘affordable.’

That implies a subsidy of roughly N800 a litre. Multiply by 51 million litres a day: about N40.8 billion a day. Annualised, that is over N14 trillion a year, before accounting for the consumption surge that cheap fuel would almost certainly trigger, since Nigeria’s 2022 experience showed usage claims jumping alongside price gaps as arbitrage and smuggling widened.

A N14 trillion subsidy bill is larger than the entire capital budget Nigeria typically allocates across health, education and infrastructure combined in a fiscal year.

It is a sum that has to come from somewhere: higher deficit financing, which means more government borrowing crowding out private credit; a weaker naira, since the central bank would again need to find and defend foreign exchange for a market it no longer directly subsidises; or a silent reallocation from health and education budgets toward NNPC’s subsidy line, as happened for a decade under the old regime.

In each version, the ‘relief’ at the pump is financed by pain somewhere else in the household budget, inflation, currency depreciation, or crowded-out public services.

Olu Fasan, a visiting fellow in international trade at the London School of Economics, said the subsidy pledge is where the gap between campaign rhetoric and governing reality is widest.

Fasan described the ADC candidate’s approach of subsidy revival as a ‘kitchen-sink’ strategy, the tactic, as he puts it, of throwing every popular grievance at the electorate ‘regardless of what works or doesn’t’.

‘That’s precisely what Atiku is doing by promising to tackle every conceivable vexed issue if he becomes president next year,’ Fasan said in an opinion article seen by BusinessDay.

He noted that Atiku’s language, that ‘the subsidy will follow the barrel,’ with local refiners required to sell at government-set prices in exchange for discounted crude, sounds tidy on a campaign stage.

Fasan explained that the production-linked subsidy Atiku describes would require the government to police how much of a subsidised crude allocation actually reaches consumers as cheaper fuel, a monitoring problem Nigeria has never solved even in simpler subsidy regimes, let alone one where ‘crude is only a part of refining’s cost element.’

Fasan points to Dangote Refinery’s own experience, after NNPC was ordered in 2024 to supply crude in naira, as proof that even direct government instructions to guarantee feedstock have not reliably worked.

‘Has Atiku investigated why NNPC can’t supply enough crude to domestic refineries?’ Fasan asked. ‘Would his government compel NNPC to supply crude it doesn’t have, perhaps due to international commitments?’

Olusegun Onigbinde, co-founder of the Lagos-based budget transparency group BudgIT, in an earlier post on X, formerly known as Twitter, rejected the idea that reversal is fiscally possible at all.

‘Subsidy cannot be returned,’ he wrote on X. ‘It’s too wasteful to close the funding gap, and Nigeria does not have the production levels to directly provide a discount to Nigerians.’

Onigbinde’s preferred path runs through currency stability rather than price control, using healthier reserves to strengthen the naira, protecting the roughly N1,000-to-dollar band he said keeps federal allocations to states manageable, and building a dedicated social-safety-net fund rather than a blanket fuel discount.

‘Creating a Federation-dedicated fund for safety nets should be explored, and FG needs a comprehensive plan to provide nudges and incentives to states for quality fiscal performance,’ Onigbinde said.

He added, ‘Reiterating that benefits have accrued to states is not enough because there’s still a huge trust deficit as well as asymmetry on how funds directly benefit citizens’.

Muda Yusuf, chief executive officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, said an annual subsidy bill approaching N20tn would compete directly with funding for infrastructure, education, healthcare, security, agriculture and social protection, while potentially widening the fiscal deficit and increasing borrowing and debt-service pressures.

Yusuf warned that restoring the old subsidy regime could therefore replace the current energy-price challenge with a much larger fiscal, debt, foreign-exchange and investment problem.

He said higher government borrowing could crowd out private-sector credit, sustain high interest rates and weaken investment, productivity, job creation and economic growth.

Rather than returning to universal petrol subsidy, the CPPE urged the government to ensure that the fiscal gains from subsidy removal are translated into visible improvements in citizens’ welfare.

‘Citizens must see tangible benefits through improved public transportation, electricity, healthcare, education, food security, infrastructure and social protection,’ Yusuf stated.

UNILAG Postgraduate student launches an educational technology platform designed to expand access to quality learning through engaging, curriculum-aligned digital content, adding to the university’s growing entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The Étude mobile application, developed by WalterSam Global Technologies Ltd, was unveiled on Friday at the Bank of Industry UNILAG Incubation and Co-Working Hub at the university’s Entrepreneurship and Skills Development Centre, Akoka.

Giving the welcome address at the event, Maruf Tunji Alausa, Minister of Education, represented by Adebayo Onigbanjo, National Project Coordinator of the Student Venture Capital Grant (SVCG), described the launch of Etude not merely as a private success, but as living proof of a national strategy.

‘Through the Student Venture Capital Grant (SVCG), forty-five students were identified as future innovators and founders in Nigeria.

‘And one of those companies was Waltersam Technologies, which received an investment capital fund of 50 million Naira equity-free grant fully funded by the Federal Republic of Nigeria’

Speaking on redesigning education for the next generation, Afolabi Lesi, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Developmental Services), said, ‘Reimagining education isn’t about replacing the classroom with technology. It’s about expanding what the classroom can become.’

‘It’s about creating learning experiences that are more accessible, more engaging, and more responsive to the diverse needs of today’s learners.’ He added.

Oluwatoyin Temitayo Ogundipe, board chairman, National Universities Commission (NUC), described the unveiling as proof of what happens when a young person refuses to wait for perfect conditions.

‘The idea you have now does not require you to be overly concerned about what other people are saying or thinking about it,’ he said.

‘What you need is the courage to run with it,’ he added.

He urged young people to prioritise developing valuable skills over money, stressing that building valuable skills and demonstrating potential would eventually attract the resources needed to grow.

Idris Ibikunle, board chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), urged that the launch celebration was only the beginning, and that true success would be measured not by applause but by Etude’s ability to endure, evolve, and remain relevant over time.

Samuel Olamilekan Johnson, CEO of Waltersam Technologies, shared how he and his team turned the personal struggles he faced after secondary school into a six-year journey of building a mobile learning platform designed to improve the quality of learning for students.

Oluwafemi Seun Paul, the chief technical officer, together with other members of the Étude team, delivered the product presentation and demonstrated the key features of the mobile application.

The launch brought together key stakeholders, including Agunsoye Olumuyiwa Johnson, dean of student affairs; Henrietta Ugboh, non-executive director, UBA; Sunday Abayomi, executive director of the University of Lagos Business School; and Bolajoko Dixon-Ogbechi, chairperson of the board of the International School, University of Lagos.

They shared a common commitment to advancing innovative solutions that can improve the quality of learning for the next generation.

Nigeria can position itself as Africa’s industrial hub if it moves from policy formulation to disciplined execution of its new industrial strategy, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has said.

Speaking at a media briefing for the association’s 54th Annual General Meeting, Francis Meshioye, MAN’s president, said manufacturing remains central to a resilient economy, but sustainable growth cannot rely on the resilience of manufacturers alone.

It requires quality institutions, consistent policy, critical infrastructure and effective collaboration between government and the private sector, he said.

The operating environment remains tough, he noted. High production and energy costs, limited access to affordable finance, infrastructure deficits, inflationary and exchange-rate pressures continue to constrain factories, while global disruptions have reinforced the need to strengthen domestic productive capacity and reduce dependence on external supply chains.

Against that backdrop, according to him, MAN has continued to press for macroeconomic stability, improved infrastructure, affordable long-term financing, a stable foreign exchange market and a predictable regulatory framework.

He noted that the manufacturing body has also engaged government on Nigeria’s evolving tax reforms, backing measures that improve administration and fiscal sustainability but urging clarity, consistency and legal certainty that support investment and competitiveness.

Meshioye said the core question is how to build a productive and competitive industrial economy capable of competing within Africa and globally.

He pointed to the Nigeria Industrial Policy 2025, launched by the Federal Government in February 2026 as a roadmap to deepen domestic value chains and place production, competitiveness and job creation at the centre of economic strategy.

The policy seeks greater coordination across enablers such as energy, infrastructure, finance, skills, trade and innovation.

MAN participated in its stakeholder consultations and welcomed its emphasis on value-chain development, strategic sectors, MSME integration and alignment with regional market opportunities.

Nigeria has had industrial frameworks before, but implementation gaps, inconsistency and weak coordination limited impact, Meshioye said.

The challenge now is to translate the new framework into measurable gains: factories operating more competitively, stronger local supply chains, increased investment, higher productivity, sustainable jobs and greater access to domestic and export markets.

That implementation focus will anchor the 54th AGM, themed ‘Leveraging National Industrial Policy to Position Nigeria as Africa’s Industrial Hub,’ scheduled for Oct. 5-7 at the Lagos Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island.

Nigeria has a large market, abundant resources, entrepreneurial capacity and significant human capital, and the opportunity is to harness those advantages through coherent policy, he said.

The three-day program will combine product showcase, policy dialogue and statutory governance. Day one will open with the Made in Nigeria Exhibition – MiNE 2026 – which will run through Oct. 7 and be open to the public.

The exhibition is designed to promote patronage of locally manufactured goods and connect producers with consumers, investors and government.

Day two will feature the public session, 6th Adeola Odutola Lecture and Presidential Luncheon.

Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, former UNIDO director-general, will be the distinguished guest speaker, leading a discussion on turning industrial policy into productive capacity and sustainable growth.

Senior government officials, diplomats, development partners and private sector leaders are expected.

Day three will be the private session for members, where MAN will present its annual report and audited accounts and elect officers and National Council members for 2026/2027.

It will be followed by a value-added session on ‘Bridging Industrial Skill Gaps with Smart and Additive Manufacturing: A Manufacturing Imperative,’ aimed at exposing manufacturers to emerging technologies and skills needed to improve efficiency and competitiveness.

Meshioye appealed to the media to give visibility to the AGM, lecture and exhibition, saying the press plays a key role in amplifying policy issues affecting manufacturers.

‘Nigeria cannot sustainably consume its way to prosperity. We must produce, add value, innovate and compete,’ he said, adding that MAN will continue to work with government and stakeholders to ensure industrial policy delivers tangible outcomes.