Nigeria recorded over $50 billion cryptocurrency Transactions in one year – SEC DG

The Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dr. Emomotimi Agama, has disclosed that over $50 billion worth of cryptocurrency transactions flowed through Nigeria between July 2023 and June 2024, underscoring the sophistication and risk tolerance of investors that the traditional market has yet to capture.

Agama in a lead paper titled Evaluating the Nigerian Capital Market Masterplan 2015-2025 presented at the annual conference of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, however raised concern over the alarmingly low participation of Nigerians in the traditional capital market, revealing that fewer than four percent of the country’s adult population are active investors.

He described the low participation rate as a major impediment to economic growth and capital formation.

He noted that while fewer than three million Nigerians invest in the capital market, more than 60 million engage daily in gambling activities, spending an estimated $5.5 million every day.

“This reveals a paradox, an appetite for risk clearly exists, but not the trust or access to channel that energy into productive investment.”

Agama also lamented that Nigeria’s market capitalization-to-GDP ratio stands at about 30 percent, far below South Africa’s 320 percent, Malaysia’s 123 percent, and India’s 92 percent, a disparity he said highlights the urgent need to deepen financial inclusion and rebuild investor confidence.

Recalling the vision of the ten-year CMMP launched in 2015, the SEC boss said it was designed to reposition Nigeria’s capital market as the engine of economic transformation by mobilizing long-term finance for infrastructure and enterprise development.