Kehinde Sowole writes on how Temi Popoola and NGX Group are turning economic reform into capital formation
Every era of economic reform produces two kinds of figures. There are the reformers themselves, the presidents, ministers and governors who take the political risk of change. And there are the interlocutors: the institutional leaders who translate reform into confidence, policy into capital, and government ambition into market reality. Nigeria’s current reform era has no shortage of the first kind. What has become increasingly evident is the emergence of the second, and few embody that role more convincingly today like Temi Popoola, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Exchange Group.
Last week’s engagement between the NGX Group Board and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the State House was, on its surface, a courtesy visit. Read properly, it was something rarer: a working session between a government pursuing economic transformation and a capital market leadership that has positioned the market as an increasingly indispensable instrument for delivering that transformation. The numbers presented to the president told one story; market capitalisation rising from under N30 trillion in 2023 to about N160 trillion today, while the All-Share Index climbed from roughly 52,000 to over 244,000 points. The rally reflects the positive response of investors to recent macroeconomic reforms, while also building on decades of institutional development by market operators, listed companies, regulators and investors. But the more consequential story came afterwards was the president’s affirmation that NNPC Limited will be reformed and listed on the capital market, alongside his endorsement of the market’s role in financing Nigeria’s ambition of becoming a one-trillion-dollar economy.
