Uwaleke: Listing of Dangote Refinery Demonstrates Market’s Capacity to Accommodate Large Enterprises

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja 

The listing of Dangote Refinery on the Nigerian Exchange will potentially afford Nigerian investors an opportunity to participate in the ownership of a major industrial asset, deepen the equity market and demonstrate the capacity of the domestic market to accommodate large-scale enterprises, President of the Capital Market Academics of Nigeria (CMAN), Prof. Uche Uwaleke, has said.

Uwaleke also underscored the need for the next capital market master plan to place particular emphasis on strengthening investor protection and connecting capital formation more directly to national development priorities. 

The master plan, he further recommended, should also focus on expanding the number of Nigerians who would participate directly and indirectly in the market.

The financial expert stated these in an article to mark Nigeria’s 66th anniversary, titled: “Nigeria at 66: Why the Capital Market Gives Us Cause to Celebrate.”

Uwaleke who is also the Head of the Institute of Capital Market Studies (ICMS), Nasarawa State University, noted that the listing of the Dangote Refinery on the Nigerian Exchange was a development that could have far-reaching implications. 

He explained that the listing of the refinery “would potentially provide Nigerian investors with an opportunity to participate in the ownership of a major industrial asset, deepen the equity market and demonstrate the capacity of the domestic market to accommodate large-scale enterprises.

“For these opportunities to translate into enduring progress, the capital market must become more familiar and accessible to ordinary Nigerians. It is in this context that the continuing efforts of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Capital Market Operators and the Capital Market Academics of Nigeria to promote capital market awareness and participation assume considerable importance. 

“Investor education, university engagement, professional training, public enlightenment, digital financial literacy initiatives and collaboration between regulators, operators and academic institutions are essential to building a new generation of informed investors.”

He argued that while the nation’s 66th anniversary demands introspection, it should not become an exercise in national despondency, adding that nations are not defined solely by the challenges they confront, but also by the institutions they build, the progress they record and their capacity to convert unrealised potential into tangible prosperity. 

According to him, the Nigerian capital market offers a compelling story of institutional evolution, resilience and promise, and perhaps one of the most persuasive reasons to celebrate the country’s independence anniversary.

According to him, among the institutions that have quietly, persistently and significantly advanced the country’s economic possibilities, the capital market deserves particular recognition, stressing that the Nigerian capital market is a story of transformation that mirrors the country’s own journey from colonial administration to sovereign nationhood and from a largely agrarian economy to an increasingly complex financial system. 

Providing a historical perspective, he traced the origin of the capital market to 1946, when the colonial administration issued a development stock to finance public expenditure, saying this early initiative established the foundation for organised domestic debt financing and the mobilisation of local savings for development, culminating in the establishment of the Lagos Stock Exchange in 1960, the same year Nigeria attained independence.

The establishment of the SEC in 1979, he noted, further strengthened the regulatory architecture, providing a dedicated institution to promote orderly market development, protect investors and foster confidence in securities transactions, adding that the enactment of the Securities and Exchange Commission Act of 1988 and the subsequent Investment and Securities Act of 1999 represented important stages in the formalisation of the market’s regulatory framework. 

Uwaleke cited Nigeria’s transition from the traditional T+3 settlement cycle to T+2 in 2025 and later T + 1 in June 2026, saying it meant that eligible securities transactions are settled one business day after the trade date. 

“Combined with electronic trading, central securities depository services, enhanced clearing arrangements and digital regulatory processes, the change illustrates the extent to which a market that began with manual procedures has embraced modern financial infrastructure.”