Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed African depositary receipts to open another route into its capital market for foreign issuers, as it seeks more cross-border listings by 2036.
The SEC’s 2026–2036 Nigeria Capital Market Masterplan 2.0 describes the receipts as an option for non-Nigerian companies that are not ready for a full secondary listing. The proposed package includes faster approvals, introductory listing-fee incentives, links between cross-border settlement and custody systems, and neutral tax treatment. Issuers would also have a path to move from receipts to a full secondary listing in Nigeria.
The plan places work on the framework in Years 2–3. Its cross-border listing measure starts from five in 2025 and aims to reach 40 by Year 10. The document presents these figures as goals under its implementation program.
Other recommendations cover foreign companies seeking to list in Nigeria and Nigerian companies seeking regional listings. For foreign companies with a secondary listing in Nigeria, the SEC proposes counting shareholders across their global registers when assessing local free-float and trading-volume requirements. The plan also calls for dual-currency listings and market segments with different free-float thresholds.
The SEC points to regional trading systems that do not connect smoothly, hurdles in onboarding foreign investors and currency-conversion constraints as barriers to market access. It lists 146 companies on the Nigerian Exchange’s Main and Premium boards as its 2026 baseline and reports about US$68 billion in equity market capitalization. The plan also records six delistings in the first half of 2025.
By Year 10, the SEC aims for 250 listed companies and listed-company capitalization equal to 60% of gross domestic product, up from 33% in 2025. The listing proposals sit alongside separate debt-market goals covered earlier by EconoTimes. The next scheduled milestone for the cross-border framework is its development window in Years 2–3.
