In a market balancing costly funding with renewed demand for capital, Coronation Merchant Bank’s 2026 expertise provides a view of how Nigerian funding banking is evolving.
The greatest measure of an funding financial institution will not be what number of offers it proclaims, however how successfully it connects firms that want capital with traders keen to supply it.
For Nigeria’s funding banking market, 2026 has examined that connection at scale. Commercial paper issuance has supplied firms options to traditional financial institution borrowing; debt transactions have remained central to company funding; and a landmark public supply for Dangote Refinery has introduced an unusually giant fairness transaction to the Nigerian Exchange.
At Coronation Merchant Bank, the yr has been marked by greater than 30 funding banking mandates dealt with on the time of an interview with Group Head Taiwo Olatunji, who anticipated the quantity to exceed 40 by year-end. Although the transaction depend was decrease than in 2025, he stated the amount of capital being raised was larger, reflecting a shift from regulatory-driven recapitalisation in direction of companies approaching the market to satisfy their very own financing wants.
That distinction issues. A market pushed by regulatory deadlines is totally different from one wherein firms select to boost capital as a result of they see alternatives to broaden, refinance or diversify their funding.
A altering market
Nigeria’s funding setting has remained advanced. Domestic institutional traders — together with pension fund directors, banks and insurance coverage firms — have performed an necessary position in absorbing securities, whereas international portfolio traders have adjusted their participation in response to foreign money situations and different market concerns.
The market’s infrastructure has additionally modified. Eligible equities transactions moved to a T+1 settlement cycle on 1 June 2026. In August, the Nigerian Exchange Group reported that FTSE Russell’s determination to reclassify Nigeria from Unclassified to Frontier Market standing would proceed from 21 September, following additional evaluation of settlement preparations. The modifications are meant to enhance market effectivity and accessibility, however their longer-term significance will rely on whether or not Nigeria converts worldwide visibility into sustained funding flows.
Meanwhile, business paper has turn out to be an necessary half of corporates’ funding combine. Olatunji attributes the exercise to firms diversifying their sources of finance and in search of options to financial institution borrowing. For funding banks, this creates a chance — and an obligation — to match financing buildings to the issuer’s wants and the investor’s urge for food.
The financial backdrop stays uneven. The IMF’s June evaluation projected development in Nigeria however warned that many households continued to face troublesome situations. The World Bank’s October 2026 Nigeria Development Update equally described resilient development alongside the problem of changing stabilisation into sooner, extra inclusive financial progress. Capital-market improvement is one half of that bigger equation: the power to mobilise funding issues most when it helps productive funding.
A landmark supply, and a broader pipeline
The headline transaction of the yr for Coronation’s Investment Banking group was the N2.15 trillion Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals public supply. The supply comprised 4.1 billion extraordinary shares at N525 every and marked the primary time a petroleum refinery was supplied to traders via the Nigerian Exchange. It closed on 27 October 2026, though the ultimate subscription and allotment figures are distinct from the acknowledged supply measurement.
The transaction is critical not merely as a result of of its measurement, however as a result of it demonstrates the calls for of bringing a significant industrial asset to a broad investor base. Coronation’s wider capital-markets ecosystem has been concerned within the supply, alongside its different company funding actions.
The relaxation of the yr’s work has been much less concentrated in a single instrument. Olatunji cited capital-raising exercise involving Presco, assist for a syndicate within the NGIC transaction, business paper mandates, and transactions spanning oil and fuel, fairness and public-sector financing. Merger and acquisition exercise, he stated, had been much less pronounced than in earlier years, with fewer companies needing acquisitions as a response to regulatory recapitalisation pressures.
The sample suggests a market that’s broadening, however not but free of constraints. The presence of capital doesn’t assure a profitable difficulty; worth, construction, credit score high quality and investor confidence nonetheless decide whether or not cash is dedicated.
Where execution counts
Olatunji identifies two recurring factors of failure in transactions: a failure to grasp the shopper’s actual necessities, and a construction that doesn’t match traders’ portfolios.
The cures are sensible somewhat than theatrical. Agree a transparent scope of work. Hold common conferences with the issuer. Test market urge for food earlier than finalising the instrument. For a first-time issuer, think about compensation profiles, credit score rankings, monetary disclosure and ensures that will enhance the instrument’s attraction. Regulatory scrutiny, notably the place securities are being supplied to the general public, should even be constructed into sensible timetables.
This is the much less seen work of funding banking: not simply presenting a chance however interrogating whether or not it may be financed on credible phrases.
Coronation’s pitch to purchasers, in accordance with Olatunji, rests on transaction expertise, responsiveness, public thought management and the power to attract on capabilities throughout the broader Group. He estimated that repeat purchasers accounted for round half of his shopper base, though he didn’t have a confirmed determine handy. The estimate factors to the significance of relationships in a enterprise the place a accomplished transaction can turn out to be the premise for the following mandate.
There are limits to what capital alone can do. Olatunji famous that the Bank’s stronger capital base after recapitalisation had in a roundabout way reworked funding banking, which he described as primarily mental and advisory in nature. Capital can assist underwriting and participation in syndicates, however the core activity stays structuring a viable deal and persuading traders of its deserves.
The infrastructure check
In 2027, Olatunji expects debt transactions to stay lively, with selective fairness offers and higher concentrate on infrastructure finance. These transactions are sometimes slower and extra advanced as a result of they require detailed work on venture economics, threat allocation and the reliability of future money flows.
That can be the place the following stage of Nigeria’s capital-market improvement could possibly be examined. Moving from standard company issuance to infrastructure funding requires greater than investor urge for food: it requires bankable initiatives, credible buildings and sustained coordination between public authorities, sponsors and financiers.
Coronation Merchant Bank is labelled Africa’s premier funding banking establishment. In a aggressive market, language alone can not confer that standing. It have to be earned via repeat mandates, rigorous execution, and the power to finance transactions that broaden the alternatives out there to companies and traders.
The 2026 document reveals exercise and publicity to landmark offers. The greater check will probably be whether or not that have can turn out to be a sturdy franchise, one which helps extra African companies entry capital and offers traders higher confidence within the alternatives forward
