The Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) has unveiled an formidable 2026 agenda centred on mobilising long-term capital to confront Nigeria’s persistent infrastructure deficits.
The brand new agenda is approaching the heels of the speedy previous 12 months that noticed overwhelming reliance by corporates on short-term financing devices corresponding to industrial papers.
In a New Yr message delivered in Abuja on Thursday, SEC Director-Normal, Dr. Emomotimi Agama, stated the Fee will prioritise channeling affected person capital into productive sectors like roads building, energy, rail, housing, and agriculture.
This strategic shift could require modernising regulatory frameworks to make markets extra accessible for long-term issuers.
What Agama is saying
Agama is solely saying that facilitating the issuance of infrastructure bonds, municipal bonds, inexperienced bonds, and infrastructure-focused funds shall be prime precedence in 2026 pipeline.
The intention, in line with him, is channelling secure capital into precedence nationwide initiatives.
“Our purpose is to draw long-term home and worldwide capital into roads, energy, rail, housing, and digital infrastructure, whereas making it simpler for state governments and infrastructure firms to entry the market effectively,” he stated.
Widening infrastructure gaps
Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit is estimated by varied authorities and private-sector research at over $100 billion. The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Fee (ICRC), a federal authorities company, has famous that Nigeria requires about $100 billion yearly over the approaching many years to shut its infrastructure deficit and drive financial improvement by enhanced infrastructure provisioning.
This widening infrastructure hole continues to manifest in dilapidated roads, erratic energy provide, inadequate rail networks, housing shortages exceeding 20 million models, and sluggish broadband penetration.
The SEC believes elevated mobilisation of long-term financing shall be important in reversing years of underinvestment in these important sectors.
Agriculture, Housing and REITs to obtain focused help
As a part of its expanded agenda, the Fee will promote listings of agribusinesses and develop tailor-made itemizing home windows for agricultural cooperatives and value-chain firms. It additionally plans to broaden commodity-linked devices to cut back pricing danger, enhance farmer incomes, and bolster meals safety.
“We are going to de-risk agriculture by commodity exchanges, agricultural funding trusts, and modern monetary devices that enable Nigerians to personal a stake within the nation’s breadbasket,” Agama said in his new 12 months message.
Within the housing sector, the SEC intends to revive Actual Property Funding Trusts (REITs) and introduce reasonably priced housing bonds, which the DG stated will “unlock capital for mass housing supply” and broaden funding choices.
Help for Manufacturing and Energy Sector financing
Agama additionally disclosed that the SEC is reviewing its guidelines to draw extra listings from small and medium-sized corporations in manufacturing, automotive, prescription drugs, and completed items. The transfer is anticipated to supply affected person capital to struggling factories, scale back import dependence, and strengthen the Made-in-Nigeria worth proposition.
On energy, he stated the Fee will help capital raises by infrastructure bonds, inexperienced power bonds, project-backed securities, and public–non-public automobiles focused at grid growth, renewable power initiatives, embedded era, and Nigeria’s broader power transition objectives.
SEC positions Capital Market as engine of nationwide improvement
Agama stated the 12 months 2026 represents not only a calendar transition however a possibility to redefine the capital market’s function in nationwide improvement.
“We glance again at a 12 months of transformation and ahead to a future the place our capital market turns into the definitive answer supplier for Nigeria’s most urgent financial and developmental wants,” he stated.
With Nigeria’s infrastructure and financing gaps widening, the SEC’s 2026 roadmap alerts a deliberate shift towards long-term capital formation—a necessary prerequisite if the capital market is to play its supposed function in driving sustainable financial progress.
What you need to know
The SEC’s strategic shift comes on the heels of a 2025 market cycle closely dominated by short-term capital raises, reflecting the liquidity squeeze confronted by corporates and monetary establishments.
All year long, dozens of corporations turned to industrial papers—usually tenored between 90 and 270 days—to satisfy operational bills as a result of issue of accessing long-term funds in a high-interest-rate surroundings. Actually, the Fee permitted Industrial Paper programmes value over N1.3 trillion as of October 2025.
Market analysts have warned that the mismatch between short-term funding and long-term capital wants heightened refinancing dangers and constrained funding in sectors requiring affected person financing, notably infrastructure, manufacturing, and energy. The SEC’s 2026 focus seems designed to right that imbalance.
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