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In a market balancing costly funding with renewed demand for capital, Coronation Merchant Bank’s 2026 expertise affords a view of how Nigerian funding banking is evolving.
The greatest measure of an funding financial institution just isn’t what number of offers it publicizes, however how successfully it connects corporations that want capital with buyers keen to offer it.
For Nigeria’s funding banking market, 2026 has examined that connection at scale. Commercial paper issuance has supplied corporations options to standard financial institution borrowing; debt transactions have remained central to company funding; and a landmark public provide for Dangote Refinery has introduced an unusually massive 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 rely was decrease than in 2025, he stated the amount of capital being raised was larger, reflecting a shift from regulatory-driven recapitalisation in the direction of companies approaching the market to fulfill their very own financing wants.
That distinction issues. A market pushed by regulatory deadlines is completely different from one during which corporations select to boost capital as a result of they see alternatives to increase, refinance or diversify their funding.
A altering market
Nigeria’s funding atmosphere has remained complicated. Domestic institutional buyers — together with pension fund directors, banks and insurance coverage corporations — have performed an essential function in absorbing securities, whereas overseas portfolio buyers have adjusted their participation in response to forex circumstances and different market issues.
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 adjustments are supposed to enhance market effectivity and accessibility, however their longer-term significance will rely upon whether or not Nigeria converts worldwide visibility into sustained funding flows.
Meanwhile, industrial paper has turn out to be an essential half of corporates’ funding combine. Olatunji attributes the exercise to corporations 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 constructions 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 tough circumstances. The World Bank’s October 2026 Nigeria Development Update equally described resilient development alongside the problem of changing stabilisation into quicker, extra inclusive financial progress. Capital-market growth is one half of that bigger equation: the power to mobilise funding issues most when it helps productive funding.
A landmark provide, and a broader pipeline
The headline transaction of the yr for Coronation’s Investment Banking workforce was the N2.15 trillion Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals public provide. The provide comprised 4.1 billion peculiar shares at N525 every and marked the primary time a petroleum refinery was supplied to buyers via the Nigerian Exchange. It closed on 27 October 2026, though the ultimate subscription and allotment figures are distinct from the acknowledged provide dimension.
The transaction is critical not merely as a result of of its dimension, however as a result of it demonstrates the calls for of bringing a serious industrial asset to a broad investor base. Coronation’s wider capital-markets ecosystem has been concerned within the provide, 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, industrial paper mandates, and transactions spanning oil and gasoline, 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 subject; 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 know the consumer’s actual necessities, and a construction that doesn’t match buyers’ portfolios.
The treatments 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, take into account compensation profiles, credit score rankings, monetary disclosure and ensures that will enhance the instrument’s enchantment. Regulatory scrutiny, significantly the place securities are being supplied to the general public, should even be constructed into real looking 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 line 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 consumer 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 subsequent 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 process stays structuring a viable deal and persuading buyers of its deserves.
The infrastructure check
In 2027, Olatunji expects debt transactions to stay lively, with selective fairness offers and higher give attention to infrastructure finance. These transactions are sometimes slower and extra complicated as a result of they require detailed work on venture economics, threat allocation and the reliability of future money flows.
That can also be the place the subsequent stage of Nigeria’s capital-market growth might be examined. Moving from standard company issuance to infrastructure funding requires greater than investor urge for food: it requires bankable tasks, credible constructions 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 should be earned via repeat mandates, rigorous execution, and the power to finance transactions that increase the alternatives out there to companies and buyers.
The 2026 document exhibits exercise and publicity to landmark offers. The greater check will likely be whether or not that have can turn out to be a sturdy franchise, one which helps extra African companies entry capital and offers buyers higher confidence within the alternatives forward
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