A report by Bloomberg said the $38m JP Morgan. deposit with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is one of the final regulatory requirements for approval.
It also signals the US lender’s readiness to launch the merchant-banking operation if its application is approved.
A CBN approval will see the bank expand its services beyond the current representative office it operates in Lagos, where it runs its commercial & investment banking business, providing asset and wealth management services.
JP Morgan, according to Bloomberg, hopes to receive the licence by year-end or in early 2027, provided it is able to obtain all the requisite approvals.
On October 8, Dapo Olagunji, managing director of JPMorgan West Africa, announced plans to establish a merchant bank in Nigeria, with operations expected to commence before the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approval.
The planned merchant bank would expand JPMorgan’s presence in Nigeria as the country seeks to deepen its financial markets and attract international investment.
On September 14, JPMorgan included Nigeria in its new emerging markets index, assigning the country a 7.4 per cent weighting.
The government bond index–emerging markets edge (GBI-EM Edge), which tracks local-currency government bonds across frontier markets, was launched at the end of September.
Nigeria’s inclusion came nearly 11 years after the country was removed from JPMorgan’s GBI-EM in 2015.
Its 7.4 per cent weighting reportedly makes it one of the largest markets represented in the new benchmark.
In 2024, the CBN raised the merchant bank minimum capital requirement to N50 billion for national licence holders.
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