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A few years ago, someone I know reported a criminal offence to the police, believing, as any responsible citizen should, that reporting a crime was the first step towards justice. He expected the police to investigate, identify the offender and, where appropriate, prosecute. What he did not expect was the financial burden that followed.

At almost every stage, money was requested. Money to move the case forward. Money for transportation. Money for investigation. Money for other things that should ordinarily be part of policing. The demands became so persistent that the complainant eventually abandoned the case. The state, represented by the police, is known as the prosecutor of criminal cases.

The irony was painful: he had reported a crime committed against him, yet pursuing justice became another burden imposed on him. This raises a fundamental question: How expensive is justice in Nigeria, and who can afford it?

Justice is supposed to be one of the cheapest commodities in a democratic society – not because it has no cost, but because access to it should not depend on the size of one’s bank account, political connections or social status.

Yet for many Nigerians, the journey from reporting an offence to obtaining justice can be financially, emotionally and psychologically exhausting.

There are also disturbing situations in which a complainant who approaches the police to report an offence can suddenly find himself or herself being treated as a suspect or defendant. Instead of being protected by the system, the person becomes entangled in it. Fear replaces confidence, and many citizens simply walk away.

Then comes the perennial question: Is bail really free?

In principle, the law provides safeguards around arrest, detention and bail. In practice, however, Nigerians frequently tell stories of money being demanded before someone can secure what should be a lawful process. Where money changes hands to secure liberty, justice becomes transactional. The consequences go far beyond individual cases.

When citizens lose confidence in the police, they stop reporting crimes. When victims stop reporting crimes, criminals become emboldened. When witnesses withdraw because they cannot afford the process, prosecutions collapse. When cases remain unresolved for years, people begin to conclude that the law is only effective against those without influence.

‘The perception that powerful people can escape consequences while ordinary citizens face the full weight of the law is corrosive. It destroys the moral authority of the state.’

And this is where Nigeria’s justice problem becomes particularly troubling.

A petty thief can be arrested, detained and prosecuted with remarkable speed, while a politically connected person accused of a far more serious offence can deploy lawyers, relationships, influence and procedural manoeuvres to remain outside the reach of effective justice.

This is not an argument against due process. Every accused person deserves a fair hearing. The issue is whether the quality and speed of justice should depend on wealth and influence.

The perception that powerful people can escape consequences while ordinary citizens face the full weight of the law is corrosive. It destroys the moral authority of the state.

The problem is not uniquely Nigerian. Across Africa, citizens complain about the cost, delay and inequality of justice. A 2026 Afrobarometer survey across 38 African countries found that only half of respondents, on average, believed ordinary citizens could obtain justice in the courts; only 43% believed cases would be resolved within a reasonable time, while 59% believed people were often or always treated unequally under the law.

Kenya, for example, continues to struggle with legal costs, delays and limited access to legal aid, although it has introduced mechanisms such as mobile courts and alternative dispute resolution to improve accessibility. A recent Afrobarometer survey found that only 47% of Kenyans believed they could afford to take a legal problem to court.

Interestingly, data on public legal-aid expenditure reveal just how little many African countries invest in making justice accessible. An earlier UNODC comparative study put Nigeria’s legal-aid expenditure at only US0.01percapita,comparedwithUS2 in the United States, US9inCanadaandUS38 in the United Kingdom. The figures are dated and should not be treated as current spending levels, but they illustrate the scale of the structural gap.

Even wealthy countries are not immune. England and Wales, for example, have experienced severe court backlogs and rising delays, demonstrating that justice systems require continuous investment, not merely good laws. So, what should Nigeria do?

First, policing must become genuinely citizen-centred. Reporting a crime should not become an economic burden on the victim. Police stations should have transparent processes for complaints, investigations and case tracking.

Second, all legitimate police-related payments should be transparent and received. Where the government requires money for a legitimate service, the citizen should know what it is for, how much it costs and where the money goes. Unofficial payments must become prosecutable misconduct.

Third, bail procedures should be digitised and monitored. A citizen should be able to know the legal basis for bail, the responsible authority and the conditions attached to it. There should be clear channels for reporting extortion.

Fourth, Nigeria needs a much stronger legal-aid system. Justice cannot be reserved for people who can afford expensive lawyers. The poor deserve competent representation too.

Fifth, we must invest in technology and case management. Cases should be trackable from complaint to investigation, prosecution and judgement. Digital records can reduce lost files, unnecessary adjournments and opportunities for manipulation.

Sixth, the judiciary must continue strengthening judicial independence, accountability and efficiency. The judiciary cannot be perceived as an arena where connections determine outcomes. Recent concerns about corruption and political interference demonstrate why institutional safeguards matter.

Finally, Nigeria must confront the culture of influence. Political connections should never become an alternative justice system.

For a country as diverse as Nigeria, justice is more than a legal concept. It is a nation-building instrument. In a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-dimensional society, citizens may disagree about politics, religion, ethnicity and ideology, but they must be able to agree on one thing: the law will protect me if I am right, and it will hold me accountable if I am wrong. That is the foundation of social trust.

A society in which the poor believe the law protects only the powerful will eventually lose respect for the law itself. A society in which criminals believe connections can save them will continue to produce criminals. And a society in which victims believe justice is too expensive to pursue will produce silence where there should be accountability.

This is why Nigeria must reduce the cost of justice, not simply the financial cost, but the cost in time, fear, frustration and lost confidence.

Justice delayed is justice denied. But justice that is too expensive to pursue is also justice denied.

The ultimate test of Nigeria’s justice system should be brutally simple: can an ordinary citizen walk into a police station without money or influence, report a crime, receive protection, follow the case, obtain competent legal representation where necessary, and ultimately receive justice?

If the answer is not yet an unequivocal yes, then our work of nation-building remains unfinished.

And perhaps this is one of the greatest leadership challenges before Nigeria: to build a country where justice is not a privilege of the connected but a right of every citizen.

In June 2026, organisations across Nigeria faced an average of 4,361 attempted cyberattacks every single week. That figure, published by Check Point Software, places Nigeria second in Africa for cyber threats, behind only South Africa. In the first half of this year alone, Kaspersky’s threat intelligence recorded 1.6 million web-based attack attempts targeting Nigerian internet users, with 18.4 per cent of Nigerian internet users encountering a web-based cyber threat during that six-month period. In the first quarter of 2026, approximately 281,500 Nigerian user accounts were compromised and are currently believed to be circulating on dark web marketplaces, available to anyone willing to pay for them.

These are not numbers from a distant economy with different problems. They describe the digital environment in which every Nigerian business, large or small, is operating right now.

And yet the conversation inside most Nigerian boardrooms and business offices remains remarkably calm. Cybersecurity is discussed when a breach makes the news. It attracts attention when a bank or a fintech company discloses an incident. Then the news cycle moves on, the conversation quiets, and the assumption reasserts itself that the problem belongs to someone else, to larger institutions with more data, more exposure, and therefore more reason to worry. That assumption is no longer defensible, and the data makes clear why.

Here is the detail that deserves the most attention and receives the least. Reported fraud incidents in Nigeria have actually decreased by nearly 46 per cent over the past four years. On the surface, that sounds like progress. The reality is more uncomfortable. Financial losses from cybercrime have continued to rise over the same period. Fewer attacks are getting through, but the ones that do are extracting significantly more value than before. Cybercriminals are not becoming less active. They are becoming more selective, more patient, and more precise. The era of the mass phishing email sent to millions of random addresses is giving way to targeted operations designed around specific organisations, specific individuals, and specific vulnerabilities identified through careful research. The attack that arrives today is more likely to succeed than the one that arrived three years ago, even if it arrives less frequently.

The nature of how these attacks operate has shifted in ways that make traditional defences insufficient. Kaspersky’s research shows that password-stealer detections in Nigeria increased by 26 per cent in 2025, while spyware attacks rose 14 per cent. This reflects a deliberate strategic shift by criminal actors away from disrupting systems and toward quietly harvesting credentials, identities, and financial access. An organisation that has never experienced a visible breach may nonetheless have had staff credentials stolen months ago, sitting undetected in the hands of someone waiting for the right moment to use them. The absence of a visible incident is not evidence of safety. It may simply be evidence that the attacker has not yet decided to act on what they already have.

The Sterling Bank incident disclosed earlier this year illustrates how this works in practice. A threat actor exploited a publicly disclosed vulnerability in a web application framework to gain unauthorised remote code execution access to the bank’s pilot infrastructure. The Nigeria Data Protection Commission subsequently opened an investigation into whether customer data linked to both Remita and Sterling Bank had been exposed. These are not small or unsophisticated institutions. They are organisations with dedicated technology teams, compliance frameworks, and security budgets. The fact that they remain exposed to incidents of this kind is not an indictment of their specific practices. It is a description of the environment every Nigerian business now operates in, one where the sophistication of the threat has outpaced the speed at which most organisations have updated their defences.

For larger corporations, the risk surface has expanded in ways that were not fully anticipated even five years ago. The shift toward remote and hybrid working, the integration of cloud-based platforms, and the growing dependence on third-party software vendors and digital supply chains have each introduced new points of exposure that traditional perimeter-based security was not designed to address. Deloitte’s Nigeria Cybersecurity Outlook for 2026 notes that organisations face significant inherited risks from their digital supply chains, with weaknesses in connected vendors, software platforms, and cloud services creating attack vectors that sit outside the direct control of the organisations most exposed to them. A company can have exemplary internal security practices and still be compromised through a vulnerability in a software tool its finance team uses daily.

For smaller businesses, the challenge is different in character but equal in urgency. The assumption that cybercriminals target large organisations because large organisations hold more valuable data is outdated. Small businesses are increasingly attractive targets precisely because their defences are weaker, their recovery capacity is lower, and the probability of a successful attack is higher. A criminal who can extract two million naira from a small business with minimal effort may find that more efficient than mounting a complex operation against a heavily defended corporate target. The 80 million Nigerian data records currently estimated to be circulating on dark web marketplaces did not all come from large institutions. Many came from small businesses, service providers, and individual professionals whose data handling practices were never designed with this threat environment in mind.

The response to all of this cannot be paralysis, and it cannot be the comfortable assumption that because nothing has visibly gone wrong yet, nothing is likely to. Both of those responses leave a business exactly where it currently is, exposed and unaware of the degree to which it is exposed.

So here is the challenge worth taking seriously before the end of this week. Think about who in your organisation currently has access to your financial systems, your customer data, and your operational platforms. Think about when those access credentials were last reviewed, updated, or audited. Think about whether your staff would recognise a targeted phishing attempt designed specifically around your business, your suppliers, and your internal language. And think about whether your organisation has a documented plan for what happens in the first twenty-four hours after a breach is discovered.

If any of those questions produces a moment of uncertainty, that uncertainty is the answer. And it is worth acting on before someone else acts on it first.

Tottenham Hotspur’s £75 million signing of Brazilian winger Savinho from Manchester City could provide a major boost to the club’s ambitions of challenging for the Premier League title as Roberto De Zerbi accelerates his rebuild.

The 22-year-old has signed a long-term contract with Spurs, with the deal potentially rising by a further £10 million in add-ons. The transfer takes Tottenham’s spending beyond £300 million this summer, underlining the club’s determination to build a squad capable of competing at the highest level.

Savinho’s arrival represents a major statement of intent from Tottenham after they narrowly avoided relegation last season. However, their title ambitions have already suffered an early setback after De Zerbi’s side opened the campaign with a disappointing 3-0 defeat against Brentford.

The Brazilian’s move to north London has been more than a year in the making. Tottenham first attempted to sign Savinho last summer, but the winger opted to remain at the Etihad Stadium.

His decision did not lead to regular first-team football, however, as he made just seven Premier League starts for City last season.

Savinho adds attacking firepower

Tottenham are banking on Savinho’s pace, direct running, creativity and ability to beat defenders to give their attack a new dimension.

The winger revealed that his conversations with De Zerbi played a key role in convincing him to join Spurs.

‘It’s taken a while, but I’m very happy to be here,’ Savinho said in a Tottenham statement.

‘It’s a wonderful opportunity at a brilliant club with one of the best managers in the world.

‘As soon as I spoke to the head coach, I knew I had to come. He told me he wants to help me reach the highest level, and I believe we can do that together, as a team.’

De Zerbi believes Savinho has the qualities to make an immediate impact.

‘Savinho is a player who brings energy, imagination and quality in wide positions. He has the courage to attack defenders and the ability to change a game with his creativity,’ he said.

‘We’re very pleased to have him with us, and I’m looking forward to working with him, helping him continue to grow and seeing him bring his personality to the team.’

£300m rebuild raises title expectations

Savinho is the latest major addition to a Tottenham recruitment drive that has already seen the club invest heavily in players including Mateus Fernandes, Sandro Tonali and Jan-Paul van Hecke.

Marcos Senesi, Andy Robertson and Martin Dubravka have also arrived on free transfers, while Spurs are reportedly working on a deal for Savinho’s former Manchester City teammate Omar Marmoush before the transfer window closes.

The scale of the spending reflects the expectations surrounding De Zerbi, whose impact late last season helped Tottenham avoid their first Premier League relegation in 49 years.

But the heavy investment has also raised expectations. Spurs are no longer simply rebuilding to escape the relegation battle; they are expected to challenge for European football and potentially close the gap on the Premier League’s leading clubs.

Savinho’s arrival represents more than another expensive signing. Tottenham need the Brazilian to become a key attacking outlet capable of supplying goals and assists while helping De Zerbi implement his high-intensity style.

If Savinho can reproduce the form that made him one of Europe’s most exciting young wingers at Girona, his arrival could significantly improve Tottenham’s attacking threat and strengthen their hopes of competing with the Premier League’s established powers.

Savinho must justify one of the biggest investments in the club’s history and help turn De Zerbi’s ambitious rebuild into a team capable of challenging for major honours.

The road to a Premier League title remains long, but with more than £300 million committed to strengthening the squad, Tottenham are making it clear that survival is no longer the target. The ambition is to compete.

The Dala Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (DALCCIMA) is seeking to deepen Nigeria’s access to the Chinese agricultural commodities market as it leads a business delegation to the 2026 China International Sesame Autumn Conference and China International Peanut Conference in Qingdao, China.

According to information obtained by BusinessDay, Monday, the conference, holding from August 23 to 25, is bringing together players across the sesame and peanut value chains, including producers, processors, exporters, importers, buyers and other international trade stakeholders.

Uba Tanko Mijinyawa, president of DALCCIMA, is leading the Kano delegation to the conference, where he is expected to present a paper on the outlook for peanut cultivation and trade in Nigeria.

Musa Rabiu Muhammad, first deputy president of DALCCIMA, is among the members of the delegation participating in the international business gathering.

Hosted by the China Chamber of Commerce of Import and Export of Foodstuffs, Native Produce and Animal By-Products (CFNA), the conference provides a platform for Nigerian agricultural businesses to engage directly with major players in one of the world’s largest consumer markets for agricultural commodities.

For Nigeria, the significance of the conference goes beyond business networking. It offers an opportunity to strengthen the country’s non-oil export base and increase the inflow of foreign exchange through agricultural commodities, particularly sesame and groundnuts.

Nigeria has significant production capacity in several agricultural commodities, but weaknesses in processing, quality control, market access and value addition have often limited the country’s ability to capture the full economic value of its agricultural output.

The Qingdao conference could therefore provide an important avenue for Nigerian exporters to understand the specifications, quality requirements and market expectations of Chinese buyers while exploring partnerships that can move commodities beyond raw exports.

For Kano, the opportunity is particularly important because of the state’s position as one of northern Nigeria’s major agricultural production and trading centres. The state has extensive commercial networks linking farmers, aggregators, commodity traders and processors across the North.

By connecting these networks with international buyers and processors, the delegation hopes to expand the market available to Kano-based businesses and strengthen the state’s contribution to Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings.

A major focus of the delegation is expected to be value addition. Rather than relying mainly on the export of unprocessed agricultural commodities, Nigerian businesses can use international partnerships to gain access to modern processing technologies, including improved cleaning, sorting, grading, shelling and hulling systems.

Such investments could allow Nigerian exporters to supply higher-value products that command better prices in international markets.

The conference is also expected to expose participants to international standards and technologies required to improve the competitiveness of Nigerian sesame and peanut products.

Improved compliance with international quality standards could help Nigerian exporters build stronger relationships with overseas buyers, reduce rejection risks and develop more predictable export markets.

The Chinese market is particularly significant because of its large demand for agricultural commodities and its extensive food-processing industry. Increased access to the market could create new opportunities for Nigerian farmers and businesses if supported by reliable production, quality assurance, logistics and export systems.

For Nigeria’s foreign exchange position, greater agricultural exports could help broaden the sources of dollar earnings beyond crude oil and other traditional export activities.

The benefits could also extend beyond exporters. Increased demand for export-quality sesame and groundnuts could stimulate production among farmers, create opportunities for commodity aggregators, expand processing activities and generate additional employment across rural communities.

The participation of DALCCIMA also reflects a growing effort by private-sector organisations in Kano to position the state’s agricultural commodities within international supply chains.

The chamber has increasingly focused on connecting its members with financing, investment, trade and business development opportunities. In July, DALCCIMA also invited active exporters seeking working capital and expansion financing to engage with a development finance institution, highlighting the growing emphasis on strengthening the capacity of local businesses to participate in international trade.

Mijinyawa has previously stressed the need for stronger international economic partnerships involving Kano businesses, particularly in agro-processing and other productive sectors. In June, he said the chamber was interested in deepening economic relations with Saudi Arabia in areas including agro-processing, manufacturing, renewable energy and Islamic finance.

The Chamber’s participation in the Qingdao conference is therefore expected to complement its broader strategy of linking Kano businesses to international markets, investors and technology providers.

Beyond immediate commercial opportunities, the conference could also help Nigerian stakeholders identify areas where government policy, private investment and international partnerships need to converge to increase export competitiveness.

This includes improving agricultural production, establishing modern processing facilities, strengthening storage and transportation infrastructure and ensuring that exporters have access to the finance required to meet large international orders.

The success of the initiative, however, will depend on what happens after the conference. International contacts and agreements will need to translate into concrete transactions, investments, technology transfers and long-term supply arrangements.

For farmers and commodity traders in Kano, the most important outcome would be the creation of a stronger and more reliable export market capable of supporting higher production and better returns.

For Nigeria, sustained growth in sesame and peanut exports could contribute to a broader diversification of foreign exchange earnings at a time when the country continues to seek stronger non-oil revenue sources.

The Qingdao meeting could thus serve as more than an international trade conference for the DALCCIMA delegation. It represents an opportunity to connect Kano’s agricultural production base with global demand and to reposition sesame and groundnuts as important components of Nigeria’s non-oil export strategy.

If the relationships established in China result in increased orders, processing investments and technology partnerships, the impact could extend from Kano’s commodity markets to farmers, processors, exporters and ultimately the wider Nigerian economy.

Felix Morka, National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has rated President Bola Tinubu’s performance above that of every democratically elected president in Nigeria, saying the administration has rescued the country from an economic crisis inherited from previous governments.

Morka made the assertion during an interview with Channels Television while defending Tinubu’s economic policies and the administration’s record ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

‘President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has outperformed any president in his first term. He has outperformed any democratically elected president in this country in their terms,’ Morka said.

The APC spokesman said the evidence of Tinubu’s performance could be seen in the country’s macroeconomic indicators, insisting that the president inherited an economy that was in serious difficulty.

‘The indicators are res ipsa loquitur, as we say in law; they speak for themselves. This president inherited an economy that was completely in a mess,’ he said.

Morka blamed previous administrations for the economic challenges confronting Tinubu on assumption of office, with particular criticism directed at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which governed Nigeria for 16 years before the APC took power in 2015.

He described former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration as a transitional government that stabilised the country before Tinubu assumed office.

‘Buhari was a stopgap president that really came to keep the country from tipping over the precipice – from 16 years of horrific maladministration of the PDP government,’ Morka said.

‘President Buhari served his term, did his job to hold the country still for President Tinubu to enter,’ he added.

Morka further argued that Tinubu’s economic reforms had begun yielding results, particularly at the macroeconomic level. He said the country had ‘come out of the woods’ as a result of policies implemented by the Tinubu administration.

The APC spokesman’s assessment came amid intensifying political campaigns ahead of the 2027 elections, with the ruling party increasingly highlighting the government’s economic reforms as a major component of its campaign message.

Ike Yusuf, a Lagos-born digital marketer based in England, has built an audience of more than 1.1 million followers on TikTok through content covering social media marketing, platform monetisation and audience development for African creators and small businesses.

Yusuf, who operates online under the name isubupromoter, publishes material on how creators in African markets navigate differences in platform monetisation requirements and access to income-generating features. His content covers audience retention, content distribution, account management and alternative revenue sources.

‘The challenge for African creators is not just reaching audiences,’ Yusuf told BusinessDay. ‘It is building channel structures that platforms recognise as eligible for monetisation tools routinely available to creators in Europe and North America.’

His online activities are directed toward creators and businesses seeking audiences in the United Kingdom and West Africa. The subject matter includes differences in platform eligibility requirements between countries and the effect those differences can have on creators whose audiences are concentrated in African markets.

Yusuf has also discussed the relationship between audience size and access to platform income programmes.

‘Many creators focus on view counts while neglecting the channel structures that determine monetisation eligibility,’ Yusuf said.

The issue of limited access to social-media monetisation programmes for African creators has also been covered by Nigerian publications, including The Punch and Legit.ng. Their reporting has examined how creators in Nigeria and other African markets adapt their income strategies as platforms expand monetisation programmes unevenly across countries.

Yusuf’s TikTok following places him among Nigerian digital creators with audiences exceeding one million on the platform. His activities extend across TikTok and other social-media platforms, where he publishes material relating to digital marketing and creator monetisation.

Nigeria’s equity market is expected to deliver further gains in the second half of 2026, but investors are likely to face a more selective market as the benchmark approaches the 60 percent annual gain that VNL Capital considers its optimistic case.

The NGX All-Share Index gained more than 60 percent in the first half of the year, making Nigeria one of the strongest-performing equity markets globally. Market capitalisation also climbed from about N99 trillion at the start of the year to almost N160 trillion before a correction in June trimmed some of the gains.

VNL Capital said the rise was driven by banking recapitalisation sentiment, strong corporate earnings and renewed investor participation.

‘Further upside is anticipated,’ the investment firm said in its Markets on the Edge: How to Capture Maximum Upside H2 2026 outlook, but added that the room for gains becomes more limited once the NGX All-Share Index substantially exceeds its 60 percent optimistic case for the year.

The firm expects gains to become more selective rather than broad-based in the second half.

Corporate earnings releases, improving macroeconomic stability and potential market-deepening events such as major listings are identified as factors that could support positive sentiment below that level. Sustained earnings momentum and continued reform progress are the main supports for the market, while pre-election uncertainty, elevated interest rates and potential profit-taking are identified as the principal risks through year-end.

Oil and gas drove the first-half rally

The strongest sectoral performance came from oil and gas.

The NGX Oil and Gas Index gained close to 90 percent by the end of June, significantly outperforming other sectors. VNL Capital attributed the rally to elevated oil prices during much of the second quarter, alongside improved domestic production volumes, stronger security around assets and clearer signals from petroleum-sector reforms.

Aradel Holdings and Seplat Energy were identified as the key channels through which investors gained exposure to the sector.

The banking index also advanced steadily, supported by completed recapitalisation and solid earnings, although its cumulative rise was more measured. Consumer goods stocks attracted stronger buying interest following improved financial performance in 2025 and Q1 2026 among companies including BUA Foods, Dangote Sugar, Nestlé and Unilever.

Insurance stocks, by contrast, ended the half-year in negative territory, reflecting what VNL Capital described as persistent liquidity and confidence challenges.

The dispersion was also visible among individual stocks. Berger Paints gained 207.50 percent in the first half, CAP rose 153.77 percent, Ecobank Transnational gained 127.21 percent, Aradel rose 111.57 percent and Airtel Africa gained 111.22 percent.

At the other end, Aluminium Extrusion Industries declined 54.27 percent, Ellah Lakes fell 37.69 percent and Honeywell Flour Mills dropped 34.70 percent.

Economic growth remains close to 4 percent

The market’s performance has come against a Nigerian economy that VNL Capital says has shown resilience through the first half of the year.

Real GDP grew 3.89 percent year-on-year in Q1 2026, compared with 4.07 percent in Q4 2025 and 3.13 percent a year earlier. The report attributes part of the growth to naira stability, particularly the convergence between parallel and official exchange rates.

The Purchasing Managers’ Index remained above 52.5 in July, keeping manufacturing activity within expansion territory. VNL Capital said the PMI trend suggests Q2 2026 real GDP growth likely remained around 4 percent.

Growth remains predominantly non-oil. Non-oil activity accounted for 96.08 percent of real GDP in Q1, compared with 3.92 percent from the oil sector.

Oil-sector growth, however, slowed to 2.57 percent year-on-year in Q1 following lower production. OPEC data cited by VNL Capital showed Nigerian production falling 1.91 percent in Q1 to an average 1.38 million barrels per day from 1.40 million barrels per day in the previous quarter. The firm expects oil-sector growth to recover substantially in Q2 following a 9.87 percent increase in production to an average 1.53 million barrels per day.

External buffers have strengthened

Nigeria’s external position also improved during the first half.

Gross external reserves rose from approximately $50.47 billion at the end of May to $52.52 billion by July 17, already exceeding the CBN’s 2026 target. VNL Capital said the increase strengthened the country’s external buffers and reinforced the sense of foreign-exchange liquidity that supported the recent improvement in investor confidence.

Capital importation also rebounded strongly, rising to $10.37 billion in Q1 2026, an 83.8 percent year-on-year increase and a 61 percent quarter-on-quarter increase. Foreign portfolio investment accounted for 95.1 percent of total inflows.

The market also received a signal of improving accessibility.

In early July, SandP Dow Jones Indices placed Nigeria on its 2027 Country Watchlist for possible reclassification from its current Standalone status back to Frontier Market status. VNL Capital said the decision represents recognition that regulatory and structural reforms are beginning to address the foreign-exchange illiquidity and capital-repatriation problems that contributed to Nigeria’s earlier removal from frontier-market indices.

Domestic investors dominate market activity

Investor participation has increased sharply.

Equity-market transactions reached a record N9.61 trillion in H1 2026, equivalent to about 81 percent of total transactions recorded on the exchange in 2025. Domestic investors accounted for 87 percent of transactions, while foreign portfolio investors accounted for the remainder.

VNL Capital said the surge in activity and continued presence of international capital reflected growing confidence in the market’s improved accessibility and regulatory environment.

The firm nevertheless described the SandP DJI watchlist status as an encouraging milestone rather than an immediate upgrade.

Inflation and rates remain key risks

The outlook for equities is also tied to the path of inflation and interest rates.

VNL Capital expects inflation to remain around 15 percent under its most optimistic scenario for H2, while a worst-case scenario could push it closer to 17 percent. The firm said the trajectory of global crude prices will be particularly important to whether Nigeria’s disinflation trend continues through the end of the year.

The report also says Nigeria may not have sufficient room to cut interest rates if policy rates in major markets remain skewed towards hikes. A surprise decline in inflation to around 12 percent would, in VNL Capital’s view, create an opportunity for the CBN to reduce rates.

That leaves the NGX entering the second half with both stronger domestic fundamentals and significant risks.

VNL Capital’s central message is that the market can still rise, but the gains are likely to become more selective as the index approaches its 60 percent optimistic case.

The next phase, according to the report, will depend on sustained corporate earnings, continued reform progress and improving macroeconomic stability, while investors will have to contend with pre-election uncertainty, elevated interest rates and the possibility of profit-taking.

The Court of Appeal, Benin Division, has overturned a Federal High Court decision that invalidated Presco Plc’s 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM) and halted the company’s rights issue.

The appellate court’s decision effectively restores the resolutions passed at the AGM and removes the restrictions previously placed on Presco’s corporate actions.

The ruling followed an appeal by Presco in Appeal No. CA/B/220/2025 against a December 11, 2025 judgment of the Federal High Court in Benin. The lower court had nullified the company’s August 19, 2025 AGM and restrained it from proceeding with a rights issue based on resolutions passed at the meeting.

The dispute followed a suit filed by parties claiming to represent Nigerian shareholders holding about 40 percent equity in Presco. They challenged the transfer of a 60 percent stake previously held by SIAT SA/Saroafrica International Ltd to Oak and Saffron Ltd, alleging that the transaction was conducted without regard to their pre-emptive right of first refusal.

The shareholders subsequently sought orders preventing Presco from implementing decisions taken at its 2025 AGM and from proceeding with the rights issue.

The Federal High Court in its December 11 ruling, set aside the conduct of the AGM and restrained Presco from issuing or selling shares pursuant to the meeting.

The court also directed the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) not to recognise or give effect to the share sale and ordered the parties to return to the status quo preceding the AGM.

Presco challenged the decision at the Court of Appeal, raising issues around the lower court’s jurisdiction, its handling of the company’s submissions and the propriety of the interlocutory injunctions.

On jurisdiction, the Court of Appeal held that the Federal High Court had become functus officio in relation to the subject matter of an earlier appeal, CA/B/146/2024, which was already pending before the appellate court. It also held that the trial court exceeded its jurisdiction by attempting to restrain acts that had already been completed. It noted that the AGM had taken place and the rights-issue offer period had closed, with shares already allotted.

The appellate court further found that Presco was denied a fair hearing because the Federal High Court did not adequately consider arguments contained in the company’s counter-affidavit and written address.

It also faulted the lower court for relying on an earlier motion that had not been moved before it.

On the third issue, the appellate court found that the trial court had failed to properly apply the established conditions for granting an interlocutory injunction. It further held that the trial court granted reliefs that were not sought by the parties, including the nullification of the AGM and an order restoring the parties to the status quo ante.

Consequently, the Court of Appeal allowed Presco’s appeal in its entirety and set aside the Federal High Court’s December 11, 2025 ruling.

The appellate court made no order as to costs, directing each party to bear its own costs.

Nigeria’s U20 women’s national team, the Falconets, have departed the country for Poland ahead of the 2026 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup, with the team promising to make Nigeria proud at the global tournament.

The Falconets left Nigeria on Monday, August 24, after completing their final phase of preparations in Abuja ahead of the tournament.

The two-time World Cup finalists secured their place in Poland after navigating a successful qualifying campaign against Rwanda, Senegal and Malawi.

Nigeria defeated Rwanda 5-0 on aggregate, overcame Senegal 3-1 and sealed qualification with a 3-2 aggregate victory over Malawi.

The team subsequently embarked on an intensive training camp in Abuja, where preparations focused on physical fitness, tactical discipline, teamwork and mental readiness.

Head coach Moses Aduku expressed confidence in his squad, insisting the players are physically and mentally prepared to compete at the highest level.

Aduku said the Falconets will travel to Poland with a strong winning mentality and the ambition of going all the way to claim the trophy.

Captain Joy Igbokwe also assured Nigerians that the players are determined to make the country proud.

She called on Nigerians to continue supporting and praying for the team, promising that the Falconets would fight to give the country something to celebrate.

Falconets face Spain, China, New Caledonia

Nigeria have been drawn in Group F alongside Spain, China PR and New Caledonia.

The Falconets will begin their campaign against Spain on September 7 before facing China on September 10 and New Caledonia on September 13.

Nigeria finished runners-up at the 2010 and 2014 editions of the competition and will be hoping to go one step further in Poland by winning their first FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup title.

The Falconets are also the only African team to have featured at every edition of the competition since it was introduced as an U19 tournament in Canada 24 years ago.

A total of 21 players will represent Nigeria at this year’s tournament as the team begins its latest quest to finally turn its long history of World Cup appearances into a maiden title.

Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Limited (CHI) has urged Nigeria’s insurance industry to move beyond the recapitalisation exercise and focus on deploying stronger capital bases to drive business growth, deepen market penetration and deliver greater value to policyholders.

The company made the call at the South-South Brokers’ Professional Evening, organised in conjunction with the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), South-South Committee, in Port Harcourt, with the theme, ‘Recapitalization: Aftermath and the Next Phase of Growth.’

The forum brought together insurers, brokers and other industry stakeholders to examine how the sector can translate the stronger capital base achieved through recapitalisation into sustainable growth.

Speaking at the event, Mary Adeyanju, managing director and chief executive officer of CHI, said the industry had reached a critical juncture where the focus must shift from meeting capital requirements to deploying capital effectively.

‘Recapitalization has changed the conversation in our industry. It has moved us beyond the question of survival to a more important question: what are we going to do with the stronger industry we have built?’ Adeyanju said.

‘At Consolidated Hallmark, our answer is very clear. We intend to grow, innovate and create greater value for our customers. Importantly, we intend to create even greater value for our broker partners.’

Adeyanju said professional brokers remained central to CHI’s business, accounting for approximately 80 percent of the company’s business. She therefore called for stronger insurer-broker partnerships as the industry enters its next phase of development.

According to her, recapitalisation will have limited impact if stronger balance sheets do not translate into better customer experience, faster claims settlement, wider distribution and increased insurance adoption.

Adeyanju said CHI had maintained a strong financial position, with shareholders’ funds standing at N61 billion as of July 2026 and total assets at N91.9 billion.

She said insurance revenue stood at N28.4 billion at the end of July and had subsequently risen to N33.6 billion. At the end of the second quarter, profit before tax stood at N27.9 billion, while profit after tax was N27.4 billion.

The insurer had also paid N9.3 billion in claims from January to date, while its surplus of assets over liabilities stood at N47.8 billion and its solvency margin at N35.6 billion.

Adeyanju said the figures were not merely indicators of financial strength but represented the capacity to invest in technology, expand distribution, improve service delivery and build greater confidence in insurance.

‘Recapitalisation must translate into better service, faster claims settlement, deeper market penetration, stronger broker partnerships, digital innovation and greater public confidence in insurance,’ she said.

Technology, she added, would be a major driver of CHI’s growth strategy, with the company investing in digital solutions designed to make insurance faster, simpler and more accessible.

The initiatives include a free API-enabled Marine Insurance Portal for seamless certificate generation, while Curacel is being used to support faster motor inspections and claims processing.

CHI is also preparing to deploy TrustFort, an enterprise platform aimed at improving operational efficiency, while its website is being redesigned to provide customers with a seamless digital experience from policy purchase through claims.

Adeyanju said the investments reflected the need for insurers to move away from traditional processes and embrace digital platforms that can improve efficiency and make insurance more accessible to consumers.

She stressed that recapitalisation should not be viewed as the conclusion of a regulatory exercise but as the foundation for a more ambitious phase of industry growth.

The growth strategy also extends to CHI Life Assurance, where the company is targeting the retail market through digital distribution, product development and partnerships.

Patience Ugboajah, executive director, CHI Life Assurance, who represented the company’s managing director, Tope Ilesanmi, said the business was positioning itself to expand its retail footprint.

‘Our focus in the group is to do retail,’ Ugboajah said, noting that CHI Life obtained its licence last year and officially launched in October.

She said the company had secured approval for a number of retail products and was working with brokers to strengthen their retail capabilities, with Rent Secure among the products being positioned for the market.

The strategy comes as insurers increasingly look towards Nigeria’s largely underserved retail market for new growth opportunities, particularly through digital channels and broader distribution partnerships.

The professional evening also featured a presentation on the Nigeria Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIRA) by Awele A. Ayetuoma, immediate past chairman of the NCRIB South-South Committee.

Ayetuoma said the latest recapitalisation exercise was different from previous exercises because it was backed by legislation and placed greater emphasis on policyholder protection.

‘This particular recapitalization exercise is different from the previous ones because it is backed by law,’ she said.

She also highlighted provisions aimed at strengthening policyholder protection, including the requirement for underwriters to contribute 0.25 percent of their net premium to the Insurance Policy Protection Fund to provide support where an insurer becomes insolvent and unable to meet its claims obligations.

The focus on policyholder protection comes as the industry seeks to rebuild public confidence and demonstrate that stronger insurance companies can provide greater security for customers.

The discussions in Port Harcourt underscored the central challenge confronting Nigeria’s insurance industry after recapitalisation: capital has been raised, but the real test will be whether insurers can convert that capital into sustainable growth, wider coverage, stronger consumer protection and a more relevant insurance market.

For CHI, that next phase will be driven by a combination of stronger broker partnerships, digital innovation, retail expansion and improved service delivery as the industry moves from the question of capital adequacy to the harder task of creating lasting value for customers and shareholders.