Nigeria’s top market regulator says billions flowing into crypto and gambling are draining the nation’s real investment base, exposing deep cracks in its capital markets.
$50bn Crypto Surge Leaves Capital Markets Behind, Says Nigeria’s Top Regulator
30 October 2025 - 13:00 CET
By Stu Clelland
Dr. Emomotimi Agama, Director-General of the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said more than $50bn in cryptocurrency transactions passed through Nigeria between July 2023 and June 2024, underscoring the scale of financial activity occurring outside formal markets.
While fewer than 4% of Nigerian adults invest in stocks or bonds, Dr. Agama noted that more than 60mn Nigerians gamble daily, placing an estimated $5.5mn in wagers nationwide. “Nigerians have shown a clear appetite for risk, but not the trust or access to direct that energy into wealth creation,” he noted at the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers’ annual conference in Lagos.
Gambling and crypto outpace formal investment
Nigeria’s gaming industry is expanding rapidly, projected to grow from $3.1bn in 2023 to $3.63bn in 2025, driven largely by mobile sports betting. Roughly 90% of wagers are placed via mobile apps, led by operators such as Bet9ja and SportyBet. With 41% of Nigerians under 25, speculative platforms have become a default outlet for financial ambition.
That same instinct now fuels crypto activity. From Binance's peer-to-peer network to local stablecoin exchanges, Nigerians have turned to digital assets to hedge currency volatility and bypass FX shortages. But Dr Agama warned that this behavior diverts liquidity from capital markets, which are already struggling with low participation and declining foreign inflows.
Nigeria, Africa’s fourth-largest economy, has a market capitalization-to-GDP ratio of about 30%, far below South Africa’s 320%, according to the World Bank.
SEC calls for integration, not opposition
Reviewing the SEC’s 2015–2025 Capital Market Masterplan, Dr. Agama said fewer than half of its 108 initiatives have been achieved, citing weak policy alignment. He identified key structural challenges ahead, including market concentration, underused pension and diaspora capital, and an annual infrastructure financing gap of $150bn.
He called for a more dynamic SEC, one capable of acting as both regulator and enabler of private-sector growth. The path forward, he argued, lies not in choosing between crypto and traditional markets but in linking them, channeling Nigeria’s risk appetite and digital fluency into genuine wealth creation.
For Nigeria, the challenge isn't stopping risk-taking. It's building markets that reward it.
