Nigeria

In January 2012 the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) launched the first phase of its “cashless” policy, which aims to reduce the volume of cash transactions and in turn cut the cost of banking services. Since then, the move towards electronic payments has spurred the growth of numerous electronic payment and commerce initiatives. The cashless...

Against the backdrop of a slowing economy and low oil prices, the Nigerian banking sector – filled with heavyweight regional players and the largest sector on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) – has sought to play an increasingly important intermediary role, facilitating efforts to diversify the economy through increased private sector credit...

Both the government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have identified increased private sector lending as a priority, which has been made all the more urgent by a pressing need to stimulate the economy. As a result, the CBN has employed its monetary and regulatory tools to increase liquidity in the system and shore up banks’ balance sheets...

As Africa’s most populous nation, and with the biggest oil and gas reserves in the region, Nigeria has long been one of the continent’s sought-after markets, but also one of its most complex and challenging. A GDP rebasing in 2014 modernised the country’s statistical measurements, expanding GDP to N94.14trn ($155.1bn at the time of printing)...