Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele has called for the listing of key government-owned assets, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPC, and Nigeria LNG Limited, NLNG, on the capital market to improve transparency and enable Nigerians to benefit from the nation’s wealth..
The call comes as NNPC advances plans for a potential initial public offering as part of efforts to strengthen corporate governance and address financial reporting gaps identified by its advisers.
Speaking at the National Capital Market 2026 conference, Oyedele said Nigeria’s gross domestic product at purchasing power parity stood at $2.4 trillion following government reforms.
He described the figure as evidence of an economy poised for growth.
“By the time inflation comes down to single digits, interest rates follow at single digits, we’re growing at 4.43%, borrowing at 30%, imagine what would happen when businesses borrow at single digits. And that’s what we’re getting to now,” he said.
“So by the time we become a $1.5 trillion economy, our capital market cannot and should not be less than $1 trillion,” he added.
Oyedele said the Federal Government would take the lead in addressing NNPC’s outstanding issues ahead of a potential listing.
“If we clean up the NNPC and list the NNPC, do you know that NNPC is worth more than the entire capital market value that we have today in Nigeria?” he asked.
He said NNPC and NLNG were among the government’s key assets that should be listed to deliver benefits for the country.
“NNPC, NLNG, those choice assets of government have to be listed because, by doing that, I believe that we will actually get a win-win outcome,” he said.
Oyedele compared NNPC’s potential value with that of Saudi Aramco, which he valued at $1.6 trillion.
“Saudi Aramco is worth $1.6 trillion. So just give NNPC 10% of that, that’s $160 billion,” he said, urging stakeholders to pursue the country’s capital market ambitions more boldly.
He said listing the assets would improve transparency, allow Nigerians to share in the wealth generated by public assets and deepen the capital market.
The minister also launched the National Savings Scheme, promising tax incentives within the law that would be properly costed and transparently administered to ordinary Nigerians.
Vice President Kashim Shettima, represented by Deputy Chief of Staff to the President Senator Hassan Hadeija, commended the Securities and Exchange Commission for strengthening enforcement, bringing digital assets within the regulatory framework, promoting faster settlement and defending the integrity of the Nigerian market before global index providers.
“When regulation is firm, fair, and forward-looking, capital stays, and under the watch of this board and management team, capital not only stayed, it multiplied for the benefit of investors and the country,” he said.
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Shettima assured stakeholders that the National Economic Council, which he chairs, would treat the capital market master plan as a national initiative.
He said the council would work with the commission to help states use the capital market responsibly through well-structured bonds, credible project pipelines and the transparency investors demand.
Shettima also acknowledged that government budgets alone could not bridge Nigeria’s infrastructure gap, estimated at trillions of dollars, and that foreign borrowing could not be the country’s only option.
He subsequently launched the plan and inaugurated its Project Steering Committee and the Capital Market Master Plan Implementation Committee.
SEC Director-General Emomotimi Agama said the plan aims to expand the capital market from a baseline of about N250 trillion to N750 trillion by 2036, positioning it as a major source of financing for President Bola Tinubu’s vision of a $1 trillion economy.
Agama said the market’s success should be measured not only by the performance of its index but also by the number of Nigerians who become investors, the businesses it finances and the futures it helps secure.
NNPC’s preparations for a potential public listing come amid a decline in its financial performance in the first half of 2026, although the company remained profitable throughout the period.
Financial data reviewed by Naira-metrics showed that NNPC recorded a profit after tax of N2.28 trillion in the six months ended June 2026, down 35.4 per cent from N3.53 trillion in the corresponding period of 2025.
The company began the year with a profit of N385 billion in January, before earnings fell to N136 billion in February, its lowest monthly result during the period.
Profit recovered to N276 billion in March and rose to N481 billion in April.
Earnings moderated to N462 billion in May before rebounding to N535 billion in June, the company’s strongest monthly performance in the first half of the year.
The figures put NNPC’s cumulative first-half profit at approximately N2.28 trillion, a decline of N1.25 trillion from the same period in 2025.
In August 2026, President Bola Tinubu charged NLNG management to convert Nigeria’s gas reserves into economic benefits after the country flared more than 203.9 billion standard cubic feet of natural gas in 2025.
Naira-metrics
