By Elizabeth Adegbesan

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed a significant expansion in the country’s financial system, with credit to the private sector rising by 2.8 percent month-on-month to N83.3 trillion in June 2026, up from the N81 trillion recorded in May 2026.

However, the apex bank disclosed that credit to the government dipped marginally by 0.99 percent to N40 trillion in June 2026 from N40.4 trillion in May.

This minor contraction occurred despite the Federal Government’s continuous borrowing activities aimed at financing its N23.85 trillion budget deficit.

According to the CBN’s latest Money and Credit Statistics data, these shifting dynamics culminated in a 1.5 percent increase in net domestic credit, which climbed to N123.3 trillion in June 2026 from N121.42 trillion the previous month.

This domestic credit expansion directly fueled the country’s broad money supply (M²), which grew by 3.09 percent month-on-month to N133.2 trillion in June 2026, up from N129.2 trillion in May.

The upward trajectory was largely driven by a robust eight percent surge in Quasi money, which rose to N88.5 trillion in June from N84.6 trillion in May. Other money supply components saw marginal gains.

Narrow money inched up by 0.22 percent to N44.7 trillion in June from N44.6 trillion in May, while demand deposits experienced a 1.02 percent bump to settle at N39.8 trillion in June from N39.4 trillion the previous month.

In contrast, currency circulating outside the banking system fell by 5.7 percent, dropping to N4.9 trillion in June from N5.2 trillion in May. This decline indicates an increased formalization of transactions as more liquidity flows back into the banking environment.

By Emeka Anaeto

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) is set to refine its investment frameworks to direct pension capital into critical national assets, including infrastructure, energy, healthcare, and agriculture, while maintaining competitive returns for contributors.

These are some of the disclosures made by the PenCom Director-General, Ms. Omolola Oloworaran, at briefing in Abuja, where she outlined key achievements of the Commission in the last two years.

Meanwhile, in outlining the major milestones she indicated an injection of N10.7 trillion in new retirement savings into the national economy during the period which brought the total pension assets to N31.48 trillion as of July 10, 2026, a 51 percent expansion from N20.79 trillion in July 2024.

Oloworaran attributed the growth to aggressive recovery of unremitted contributions, flexible investment strategies, improved compliance, and tighter collaboration with anti-graft agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC).

Looking ahead, the Commission outlined three upcoming initiatives including a health initiative  set to be launched within three months with a pilot program to provide free health insurance to 30,000 low-income retirees, aged 60 and above earning N150,000 or less monthly, before expanding nationally.

The second initiative is a Minimum Pension Guarantee  which is a structural floor to ensure no Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) retiree falls below a guaranteed basic income.

The Commission also intends to initiate an informal sector expansion through a  rollout of the Personal Pension Plan and a network of Accredited Pension Agents designed to extend coverage to traders, artisans, transport workers, and fintech users while creating job opportunities.

Alongside asset growth, coverage under the CPS widened significantly in the past two years, adding 938,229 new contributors to bring the total subscriber base from 10.42 million to 11.32 million workers.

PenCom also rolled out several interventions to boost retiree welfare including the Pension Boost 1.0 which increased aggregate monthly pension payouts by 22%, raising total monthly distributions from N12.2 billion to N14.9 billion.

The Commission also effected the consequential adjustment with over 195,000 eligible treasury-funded retirees who retired on or before July 29, 2024, receiving a N32,000 monthly increase to align with the new national minimum wage. There was also the NSITF Pension Review which marked the first upward review for Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) retirees in 21 years, yielding pension increases of up to 1,173% for individual beneficiaries, alongside the clearance of N8.7 billion in arrears owed to 2,116 retirees.

By Peter Egwuatu

Chairman of First HoldCo Plc, Femi Otedola, increased his shareholding in the company to 21.96 per cent yesterday with acquisition of an additional 706.13 million shares valued at N77.58 billion.

This was disclosed in a filing obtained from the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), as the latest acquisition raised the volume of shares under his control from 9.28 billion to 9.986 billion.  The shares were acquired through his investment vehicle, Calvados Global Services Limited.

Following the transaction, the value of Otedola’s total investment in First HoldCo rose to N1.048 trillion with the company’s share price at N105 per share at the close of trading yesterday, a sharp increase from the N566.43 billion worth of his holdings as at June 18, 2026.

It will be recalled that in June, Otedola purchased 680 million shares in First HoldCo through a private placement in a deal worth N29.6 billion, further consolidating his ownership in the company.

The insider purchase comes barely a day after First HoldCo became the first Nigerian banking stock to cross the N5 trillion market capitalization milestone during intraday trading,    showing its position as the one of the most valuable listed banking institution.