Publication

Hidden Economy: How Nigerian clubs nurture players, miss out on transfer fees

NIGERIAN FOOTBALL clubs are struggling to capture the financial value of players who move abroad, as private academies play an increasingly important role in developing young talent and negotiating arrangements that shape future transfer...

Ebola alert casts shadow over international travel to Nigeria

THE CONFIRMATION of an imported Ebola case is creating uncertainty for international travellers and businesses operating in Nigeria, with potential implications for corporate travel, conferences, aviation, hospitality and investor engagements if health...

Nigeria’s cold chain gap turns fresh produce into losses

EVERY HARVEST, Ibrahim Idris, a 47-year-old farmer in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, faces a race against time and temperature to get his produce to market before it spoils. He transports 100 baskets of tomatoes on a light truck,...

Inside food markets where cancer-linked chemicals kill consumers

AT THE entrance of Ile-epo Market, large metal bowls filled with beans sit in front of a trader who calls out to attract customers moving in and out of the market. To shoppers, the beans are an affordable staple used to prepare everyday meals in...

Niger ia’s 7% gr ow th bet faces...

Continued from page 1 He warned that reversing the removal of fuel subsidies and foreign-exchange liberalisation could undermine investor confidence, trigger capital flight and weaken the naira. He also argued that bringing inflation to low single...

FASHION

The Business of Luxury: How House of Marvee Is Shaping African Fashion

Nollywood data void leaves investors in N2.7trn sector flying blind

NIGERIAN FILMMAKERS spend hundreds of millions of naira on productions, but the lack of a standardised system for tracking budgets, revenue, and ownership rights makes it hard for investors to judge the value of a movie. Businessday’s findings showed...

OPay Named Digital Bank and Financial Inclusion Leader at BAFI 2026

Opay has won two awards at the 2026 Businessday Banks and Other Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards, receiving the Digital Bank of the Year and Financial Inclusion Leader of the Year titles. The awards, presented at the 14th edition of the ceremony...

Nigeria trails African peers in IMF’S 2026 growth forecast

NIGERIA’S ECONOMY is forecast to grow by 4.2 percent in 2026, up from 4.0 percent in 2025, marking its strongest expansion since 2022. However, the country ranks 23rd among sub-saharan African economies, according to Businessday’s analysis of the...

Ghosts of past subsidies haunt Nigeria's petrol discount sale

NIGERIA'S GOVERNMENT has spent three years telling its people that cheap, state-funded petrol is gone for good. A month-long discount at the state oil company’s filling stations is now testing how many believe it. The Nigerian National Petroleum...

OBIJACKSON AND NESTOIL COMPANIES RESTRUCTURE BOARDS. NEW DIRECTORS APPOINTED.

From left: Dr O.J. Mbonu; Barr Nduka Ikeyi; Engr. Chinazo Okoye; Mr Chino Obiagwu SAN; Chidi Anya; Engr. Dipo Olanrewaju; Mr Kenneth O. Aigbinode; Mr Gbenga Olaniyan; Engr. Ubaka Emelumadu; Mr. Wolfgang Goetsch; Mr. David Oye-igbemo; Chief Victor...

Don’t wait for FG, develop your seaports, Akwa Ibom, C/river, others told

Considering the huge volume of cargo it has received and shipments out of the country in the three years it has operated, the Lekki Deep Sea Port has been a success story. Commissioned in January 2023, the port, which is Nigeria’s deepest and largest...

FASHION

Closet Full of Clothes, Nothing to Wear? Why Buying More Isn’t the Answer

Politics crack Tinubu as discounted petrol returns

THE FEDERAL Government is rolling out a package of measures to ease petrol prices and transport costs, including a 30-day discount at Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited filling stations and a proposed ceiling on the landing cost of...

Opposition in world’s poverty capital lures voters with costly subsidy return

WITH NIGERIA’S presidential election 99 days away, opposition leaders Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar are promising to revive petrol subsidy, reversing positions they took before the 2023 election as the cost of living shifts from an economic issue to a...

Nigeria records 63 deaths, loses N34.8bn to five-year military air crashes

NIGERIA’S MILITARY aviation losses have come at a steep human and financial cost, with nine aircraft crashes and other major mishaps killing 63 military personnel and passengers as well as destroying platforms valued at an estimated N34.8 billion in...

Nigeria trails Africa’s top education spenders

NIGERIA’S $2.65 BILLION federal allocation for education places it far behind African peers including South Africa, Ethiopia, Algeria, Morocco and Kenya. The disparity comes as Nigeria heads towards the 2027 presidential election, with human capital...

Recapitalised banks lift lending but high rates dampen demand

NIGERIA’S BANK credit to the private sector expanded by N3.96 trillion between April and August 2026 as post-recapitalisation liquidity fueled new lending. However, industry experts said high interest rates continue to temper borrowing demand...

ENTERTAINMENT

Patoranking Celebrates 10yrs of God Over Everything as Lord’s Elevates TRACE Live

Nigeria’s $5bn swap trades certainty for cheaper money

NIGERIA’S $5 BILLION financing arrangement with First Abu Dhabi Bank is entering a new phase just months after the government began drawing from it, with FAB considering whether to syndicate part of its exposure to other lenders. The move could spread...

Investors wary as violence shadows Nigeria’s mining ambitions

NIGERIA IS trying to turn an estimated $700 billion mineral endowment into a new source of investment, exports and industrial growth, but violence, illegal mining, and weak infrastructure around some of the country’s richest deposits may undermine...

Oil refining boom needs bigger upstream engine

ONCE UPON a time, Nigeria had crude oil and no refineries; now Nigeria has refineries. What it increasingly lacks is enough dependable crude to feed them. Africa's largest oil-producing country has spent decades exporting raw crude and importing...

Oil majors sacrifice reserve growth to keep shareholders paid s

INTERNATIONAL OIL companies are rewriting their rulebook by shifting measures from how many barrels they can add to the ground to how much cash they can return to Wall Street, Businessday’s findings have revealed. Ever since the 2020 price crash...

Peace, unity still on holiday as Nigeria clocks 66

While successive governments and administrations have battled ti steady Nigeria's economy, not much attention has been paid to the peace and unity of citizens. All the ethnic nationalities that make up the entity called Nigeria have continued to live...

INTERVIEW

Natural Hair Isn’t Just a Trend; It’s Economic Infrastructure - Adanna Madueke on Building Africa’s Hair Economy

States, FCT generate N5.15trn IGR in 2025

THE NATIONAL Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported that the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) collectively generated N5.15 trillion as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in 2025. This is contained in the NBS report on IGR at State...

CBN rate reset sends bank deposits to 7-month high

BANKS’ DEPOSITS with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), known as the Standing Deposit Facility (SDF), rose to a seven-month high of N7.33 trillion a day after the apex bank reset its benchmark interest rate, reflecting elevated liquidity in the...

CBN slashes rate in record cut as benchmark catches up with market

NIGERIA’S CENTRAL bank surprisingly delivered its biggest single interest-rate cut on record, slashing the benchmark by 350 basis points to 23 percent as money-market rates had already fallen well below the previous policy rate. The decision follows a...

NEWS

NIGERIA HAS a waste problem that is o en viewed only through the lens of sanitation. During the rainy season, plastic bottles, food wrappers and discarded sachets clog drainage channels, contributing to ooding in homes and businesses. In several parts...

MPC faces interest rate dilemma as...

Continued from page 1 The monthly numbers are more revealing. Monthon-month inflation slowed to 0.71 percent in August from 1.57 percent in July, its lowest pace this year. Core inflation fell to 13.29 percent from 14.97 percent, while food...

Enraged Nigerians flay NSCDC over death of 37 illegal miners

The mysterious death of about 37 out of the 65 persons arrested in connection with Illegal mining in Niger State has elicited outrage in society. The 37 died under unknown circumstances in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps...

Nigeria sets sight on MSCI, Jpmorgan return after FTSE win

WITH A RETURN to the FTSE index secured, Nigerian authorities will now turn their attention to persuading MSCI and Jpmorgan to restore the country to their global equity and bond benchmarks, in a bid to unlock a potentially larger channel for foreign...

How Tinubu’s planned absence from 81st UNGA may hurt Nigeria’s push for global partnerships

For Nigeria, the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is more than another item on the presidential calendar. It is one of the few occasions each year when the country’s president has a direct platform before world leaders, investors,...

Women’s Leadership Resilience: From surviving the workplace to redesigning it

Naira set to shrug off election risk in strongest run since 2018

NIGERIA’S NAIRA is on track for its strongest annual gain since at least 2018, shrugging off the political risks typically associated with an election season as higher oil prices and stronger remittance inflows boost dollar liquidity, analysts...

Uber leaves Nigeria after 12 years, exposing economics of ride-hailing

UBER, THE mobility giant that changed the way people and businesses move is winding down its operations in Nigeria and Uganda, marking a retreat from two of its major sub-saharan markets as part of a global corporate restructuring that cut 3,300 jobs,...

Nigeria's youthful pension contributors fuel next pool of patient capital

NIGERIA’S PENSION system is increasingly becoming a long-term investment engine as younger workers account for the bulk of new entrants into the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), creating a growing pool of capital that could be deployed beyond...

Tinubu’s growth story runs into hunger crisis ahead of 2027 vote

NIGERIA’S ECONOMY grew 4.43 percent in the second quarter of 2026, its fastest second-quarter expansion in five years, giving President Bola Tinubu a stronger economic case to make ahead of the 2027 election, as foreign-exchange reserves rise and...

Tinubu reports xenophobic attacks to AU

PRESIDENT BOLA Tinubu has formally reported recurring xenophobic and Afrophobic attacks against Africans and other nationals in South Africa to the African Union. Tinubu spoke through Vice President Kashim Shettima on Sunday at the 21st Extraordinary...

Electoral reforms fail to restore credibility in LG elections

Nigeria’s electoral reform drive risks becoming an exercise in futility if local government elections remain under the political shadow of state governors. While successive administrations and governments have introduced reforms designed to make...

Temiloluwa Bayode: How a Nigerian PR Expert Is Building an Eight-figure Creative Business

FTSE return puts Nigerian stocks back on foreign investors' radar

FTSE RUSSELL will officially upgrade the Nigerian stock market from "Unclassified" to "Frontier Market" status on September 21, ending a rigorous review period and signaling the country’s formal return to the global investment radar. The...

New terror corridor puts food supply at risk

NIGERIA’S FOOD-SECURITY ambitions are facing a new and complex threat as armed groups expand their operations into some of the country’s most important agricultural belts, raising concerns that the centre of terrorism and organised rural violence may...

Hidden fees stall Nigeria’s broadband expansion plan

HIDDEN FEES are stalling Nigeria’s broadband expansion plans, as several state governments impose exorbitant application charges of up to N700,000 on telecom operators despite a national policy designed to make fibre deployment cheaper. These backdoor...

Electricity subsidy trap leaves 9 of 11 discos on government life support

WHEN NIGERIA'S electricity regulator dissolved the board of Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company on Aug. 10, it cited a company that owed more than it could pay and had no plan to close the gap. Nine months of market data analysed by Businessday...

A five-point plan to transform Nigerian football

Introduction CABO VERDE, a nation of roughly half a million people, took about thirty years of patient institution-building — youth structures, coaching pipelines, diaspora engagement — to reach its first World Cup in 2026. Curaçao, under two hundred...

Poor sanitation in Nigerian cities worsening health issues

Afew years ago, a World Bank’s report raised an alarm on Nigeria’s water and environmental challenges, decrying that the country loses N455 billion, about 1.3 percent of GDP, annually to poor sanitation. As well, Clean Nigeria Campaign, an initiative...

INTERVIEW

From Campus Sidehustles to Wholesale Hub: How Kila Ibukun Built the House of Chaviva Empire

After Businessday investigation, FCCPC orders withdrawal of expired, repackaged food

THE FEDERAL Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has ordered the withdrawal of consumer goods that do not comply with mandatory labelling requirements, following a Businessday investigation that exposed how repackaged expired products...

Universal Insurance shareholders face N13.6bn loss after NAICOM pulls licence

SELL ORDERS piled up on Universal Insurance Plc’s stock on Wednesday, but there were no buyers willing to take the other side. Shareholders who wanted out simply couldn’t get out. The trigger was the National Insurance Commission’s (NAICOM) formal...

Nigeria's 2027 race pits economic reforms against cost-of-living pain

NIGERIA’S 2027 presidential race is shaping up as a referendum on President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms, with the ruling party defending a painful overhaul while opposition candidates seek to turn the cost of living into a case for change. As...

Rising food prices weaken Nigeria’s disinflation gains

NIGERIA’S HEADLINE inflation eased consecutively in July, but a sharp acceleration in food prices is complicating the country’s disinflation story and limiting the relief households are likely to feel. The headline inflation rate fell to 15.43 percent...

The long road to Geregu Power's shock bond default

FOUR YEARS after issuing Nigeria's largest-ever corporate bond for a power generation company, Geregu Power Plc stunned the capital market by defaulting on its debt obligations. Earlier this month, the FMDQ Securities Exchange tagged the company's...

Tourism shows resilience in Osun despite pre-election fears, uncertainties

he Nigerian tourism industry has once again proved its resilience at this year’s edition of the annual Osun Osogbo Festival, where a mammoth crowd stormed the ancient city for 11-day cultural fiesta and religious pilgrimage. This year’s festival,...

Couture Meets Sci-fi: The Architecture of Jarvis’s Viral Wedding Dress

CBN reopens OMO to retail investors for first time in 7yrs as election spending threatens inflation

NIGERIA'S CENTRAL bank is turning to a market it locked individuals out of seven years ago as a fresh line of defense against an anticipated wave of election-related spending. The Central Bank of Nigeria has reversed a 2019 restriction that confined...

Nigeria's improving investor pitch runs into a tax problem

UNCERTAINTY OVER Nigeria’s capital gains tax is emerging as a major concern for offshore investors, threatening to undermine improved sentiment towards the country’s economic reforms, according to Cordros Securities. The investment firm said foreign...

Nigeria rewrites deepwater rules in race to lure $50bn oil capital

NIGERIA IS tearing up two decades of ad hoc dealmaking in its offshore oil patch, betting that a single, rulesbased framework will do what years of one-off negotiations could not and pull as much as $50 billion into deepwater fields that have sat...

Nigeria's solar boom runs on imports it can't afford to cut

SOLAR POWER has emerged as a crucial lifeline in Nigeria, plugging electricity gaps the national grid and diesel generators cannot fix. Yet, in a country where roughly 87 million people lack access to electricity, the panels keeping homes and...

First corporate bond default in seven years exposes cracks in power sector

Issues at stake ahead 2027 general election

The 2027 election is no longer a distant political event. With the formal campaign window opening on August 19, 2026 for presidential and National Assembly contests and September 9 for governorship and State House of Assembly elections, the contest is...

The crop that feeds millions but earns Nigeria no FX value

NIGERIA GROWS enough plantain to feed its 242 million population and supply the West African region. Yet, within the broader $31.4 billion global market, the country’s footprint remains virtually nonexistent. With an annual output of over 3 million...

Nigeria Re, NICON in court with NAICOM over recapitalisation process

NIGERIA’S OLDEST reinsurance company, Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation (Nigeria Re), and NICON Insurance Limited, both owned by billionaire politician Jimoh Ibrahim, have dragged the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) to court over the industry...

Cheaper Latin American oil threatens Nigeria's grip on Europe

NIGERIA’S PREMIUM crude grades are facing their most severe competitive test in years. An influx of cheaper oil from Brazil and Guyana is shifting European buying habits, threatening to erode Nigeria's dominance in one of its most lucrative export...

Fake drug markets thrive in Nigeria despite N1.1trn seizures

HAS continued to remain a major distribution hub for counterfeit, falsified and substandard medicines despite years of enforcement operations, repeated raids and seizures worth more than N1trillion. Businessday's analysis of National Agency for Food...

43 insurers scale industry recapitalisation hurdle as 8 await fate

NIGERIA'S INSURANCE industry has completed its year long recapitalisation exercise with 43 insurance and reinsurance companies meeting the new minimum capital requirements, drawing more than N300 billion in fresh capital into the sector. The...