E-Financial
WAIFEM Asks FG to Tax Rich’s Property to Boost Revenue

Baba Yusuf Musa, director general of the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM), has called on the government to dive into property tax to boost its revenue.
Speaking on the sidelines of the just concluded 2023 Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the WAIFEM DG said, there is the need for government to work on raising the ratio of property tax to GDP from the less than one per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to at least five per cent.
Noting that the peers of the country are recording a property tax to GDP ratio of around 10 per cent, he added that there is a need for the government to tax the rich.
According to Baba, Nigeria still has a long way to go in terms of mobilising the actual tax revenue that it should have.
While stating that there are a lot of opportunities for us to tax, he said, one of the places the government needs to focus on is property tax. “When you take the property tax ratio to GDP of Nigeria is virtually less than one per cent, despite all the wealth that we have. The number of buildings, the number of cars that we have in the country.
“When you take the ratio of properties to GDP is less than one per cent compared with average of about five to 10 per cent in lower middle income countries like ours. That is one source that we can look at, and there are several opportunities to mobilise those tax revenues on properties.
“Just take the capital cities of any of our states and see the number of buildings, how many landlords are actually paying tax to the government.
If you take that ratio, you realise that there are very few and there are just some minimal issues that the government should do to mobilise those ones.
“We need to have a register that identifies who the owners of properties are, and have a reporting format that can easily be tracked. If you give out your house on rent, it is a source of income and you should declare it and pay a certain percentage but that has not been happening. That is why people are complaining.
“The problem is that the civil servants, all employees in the formal sector are the ones taxed by the government but those that are in the informal sector, and those who have properties, who are millionaires are actually evading the tax that they were supposed to pay. That is one source.
“Another source is digitalisation and over the years, we should have addressed the issues that relate to digitalisation. We have actually tried to digitalise the collection process, but there are rooms for improvement. In the collection process, checks and balances should also be improved.
“For instance, if one is to pay a certain amount of money online to the revenue authorities, in many cases you will find that when you want to pay the tax the website is not working, but if you walk physically there to the Internal Revenue Department, somehow it will work.
“So, in my view, there has to be some form of monitoring mechanism that at least someone should be checking to see that all these are things working so that investors and those who are willing to pay tax online should have easy access,” he pointed out.
E-Financial
GTCO to Become First Nigerian Bank to List on London Stock Exchange

By 8 am on July 9, GTCO Holdings is set to commence trading on the London Stock Exchange.
As the group is set to list all its shares on the London Stock Exchange, becoming the first Nigerian banking entity to do so.
This is as the group launches a public offer of new ordinary shares to raise approximately $100 million on the London Stock Exchange.
The equity offering, which is an accelerated bookbuild and managed by Citigroup, began on July 2 and is to last until July 31.
On July 31, the group announced that it would cancel the listing of its Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) on the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Official List.
It will also cancel their admission to trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE)’s main market.
In place of the GDRs, the group will list all its ordinary shares directly.
aims to admit all its shares to the equity shares category for international commercial companies under a secondary listing on the FCA’s Official List.
The shares will also begin trading on the LSE’s main market for listed securities.
According to a regulatory filing on the London Stock Exchange, the net proceeds from the offering will be used to recapitalize GTBank Nigeria.
Based on the prevailing exchange rate of N1,540 to the US dollar, the targeted $100 million equates to approximately N154 billion.
This capital raise is expected to position the Group to fully meet the N500 billion minimum paid-up share capital required by regulators for banks with international licenses.
As of now, both Zenith Bank and Access Holdings have already met—and exceeded—this threshold.
E-Financial
NAICOM Issues New Licenses to SanlamAllianz Life, General Insurance

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has handed over new licenses to SanlamAllianz Life and General Insurance Nigeria Ltd at brief ceremony held in Abuja.
Olusegun Omosehin, commissioner for Insurance emphasized the Commission’s commitment to supporting the growth of insurance entities in the country, while ensuring strict compliance with regulatory requirements. He urged the companies to prioritize good corporate governance, stability, and timely claims settlement processes.
The Commissioner reiterated NAICOM’s dedication to removing unnecessary bottlenecks and improving the insurance industry’s overall performance. He expressed confidence that the merger would enhance the companies’ capabilities and contribute to the industry’s growth.
SanlamAllianz recently launched its operations in Nigeria, marking a significant step in the company’s Pan-African expansion.
The launch follows the merger of Sanlam and Allianz’s Nigerian operations, creating a new entity named SanlamAllianz Nigeria.
This joint venture aims to transform the Nigerian insurance landscape by offering enhanced customer experiences, innovative solutions, and improved financial inclusion.
E-Financial
World Bank Approves Extra $65m for Nigeria’s SPESSE

World Bank has approved an additional $65 million loan for Nigeria to support the Sustainable Procurement, Environmental, and Social Standards Enhancement (SPESSE) project, increasing the total financing for the initiative to $145 million.
The approval was granted on June 24, 2025, according to details posted on the World Bank’s website, which also indicates that the project’s status has moved to “active” following the approval.
The SPESSE project, initially launched with an $80 million loan approved in February 2020, aims to strengthen institutional capacity for managing procurement, environmental, and social standards in both the public and private sectors across Nigeria.
The World Bank described the project’s development objective as the establishment of sustainable capacity in these areas.
This latest approval is part of a broader wave of financing expected from the World Bank to Nigeria in 2025.
The bank is scheduled to approve loans totalling $1.61 billion over the coming months, supporting various development initiatives.
Among these is a $300 million loan for the ‘Solutions for the Internally Displaced and Host Communities Project,’ expected to be finalised by the end of July.
This project aims to improve access to basic services and economic opportunities for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and host communities in selected local government areas in northern Nigeria.
In September, the World Bank plans to approve four additional loans: a $10.5 million facility to support technical assistance for the Central Bank of Nigeria, a $300 million Health Security Program targeting Western and Central Africa (Nigeria – Phase IV), a $500 million project for building resilient digital infrastructure (BRIDGE), and a $500 million loan under the Nigeria Sustainable Agricultural Value-Chains for Growth project aimed at promoting sustainable growth and job creation within key agricultural sectors.
Earlier in March 2025, the bank approved three financing requests amounting to $1.13 billion.
These funds are directed towards projects focused on enhancing quality education, boosting household and community resilience, and improving nutrition.
Among the approved loans were $80 million for the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria 2.0 project, $552 million for the HOPE for Quality Basic Education for All programme, and $500 million for the Community Action for Resilience and Economic Stimulus Programme.
In February, the Nigerian government announced expectations of new World Bank loans totalling $2.2 billion for six different projects in 2025. This follows a $1.5 billion loan disbursed in 2024 aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s economic stability and resource mobilisation efforts.
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