The Nigerian equities market closed Thursday’s session in negative territory, extending its bearish run to the fourth consecutive trading day as profit-taking in heavy and mid-cap equities dragged down key performance indicators.

At the close of trading, the overall market capitalisation value shed N581bn or 0.37 per cent to seal the day at N155.359tn, down from N155.940tn recorded in the previous session.

Similarly, the All-Share Index retreated by 905.30 absolute points, representing a decline of 0.37 per cent, to close at 242,227.31 points. The negative outing was largely driven by price depreciation in large and medium-capitalised stocks, including Aradel Holdings, UACN, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Eterna, and Transnational Corporation.

Market breadth closed negative as 30 decliners outpaced 24 advancers, reflecting dominant bearish sentiments.

On the laggards’ log, McNichols led the losers’ chart with a maximum price plunge of 10 per cent to close at N7.74 per share. Associated Bus Company followed closely, declining 9.88 per cent to finish at N6.20 per share, while Eterna lost 9.85 per cent to close at N29.75 per share.

Energy giant Aradel Holdings also suffered a 9.51 per cent drop to close at N1,749.90 per share, while NPF Microfinance Bank slipped 8.45 per cent to settle at N5.20 per share.

Conversely, International Energy Insurance recorded the highest price gain, rising 10 per cent to close at N6.60 per share. Omatek Ventures followed on the gainers’ log with a 9.73 per cent increase to close at N2.03, while Ellah Lakes and Abbey Mortgage Bank both appreciated 9.68 per cent to close at N8.50 per share. Cutix also registered a 9.66 per cent gain to close at N3.18 per share.

Activity metrics weakened as total volume traded plummeted 43.4 per cent to 522.28m units, valued at N24.11bn, and exchanged in 53,613 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Access Holdings topped the volume-driven activity chart with 109.719 million shares valued at N2.617m. FCMB Group followed with 34.599m shares worth N384.162m, while Nigerian Exchange Group transacted 28.045m shares valued at N3.889bn.

Zenith Bank traded 26.937m shares valued at N3.318bn, while Sterling Financial Holdings Company filled the top-five volume spot with a turnover of 22.492 million shares worth N176.098m.

Shareholders of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated have approved all resolutions tabled at its 2026 Annual General Meeting in Lomé, including a $40m dividend payout for the 2025 financial year following a record fiscal performance.

The dividend distribution, which translates to 0.16 US cents per share, represents the financial institution’s first dividend payout to investors since 2022.

For the year ended 31 December 2025, the pan-African banking group reported a record profit before tax of $801m, representing a 21 per cent growth year-on-year compared to the previous period.

Net revenues for the conglomerate climbed 17 per cent to hit $2.45bn, while its pre-provision, pre-tax operating profit jumped 29 per cent to $1.265bn, underlining significant operational momentum across its geographic footprints.

Addressing investors at the meeting, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Papa Ndiaye, tied the improved metrics directly to the group’s corporate recovery roadmap.

“Our strong 2025 financial performance has marked the return to dividend payments to our shareholders. This $40m dividend is a direct reflection of the resilience of our unrivalled pan-African model, institutional maturity, and our staff’s skill and discipline.

“This achievement is a good illustration of my absolute confidence in the strength of the group to continue delivering sustainable growth and value across the continent,” Ndiaye said.

He added that the lender’s performance strongly validates the strategic safety net provided by a highly diversified regional structure, which shields the broader balance sheet from localised macroeconomic shocks.

Corroborating the chairman’s position, the Chief Executive Officer of Ecobank Group, Jeremy Awori, explained that the ongoing execution of its Growth, Transformation, and Returns strategy remains central to the expansion.

He said, “Our shareholders once again strongly reaffirmed their confidence in our GTR strategy. Thanks to our deliberate and structured approach to growth, we are bringing value to our shareholders while transforming payments and trade across our 34 markets.

“Steadily, our pan-African model is building the infrastructure that will enable the future of the continent’s financial architecture.”

The financial reports indicate that the tier-1 lender maintained a capital adequacy ratio of 16.7 per cent, placing the group roughly 420 basis points above the regulatory minimum required for seamless cross-border banking operations.

Operational efficiency also reached a historic milestone, with Ecobank’s cost-to-income ratio dropping to an all-time low of 48.3 per cent during the period under review.

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has said that recent government interventions, including the Naira-for-Crude initiative, the Nigeria Industrial Policy, withholding tax exemptions, expanded VAT deductibility on fixed assets and services, phased reductions in Companies Income Tax, tax incentives for research and development, and fiscal relief measures for small and medium industries, could revive the manufacturing sector if properly implemented.

The group noted that manufacturers had borne the brunt of economic reforms introduced over the past three years, which led to soaring production costs, declining capacity utilisation, reduced access to credit and significant job losses.

In the organisation’s recent three-year government assessment document, MAN Director-General Segun Ajayi-Kadir stated that the reforms had laid the foundation for long-term economic restructuring but stressed that implementation must now focus on industrial recovery and growth.

Ajayi-Kadir stated, “The Nigeria Industrial Policy and the renewed emphasis on local content procurement through the Nigeria First framework equally represent important steps toward strengthening domestic industrial capacity. If properly implemented and consistently enforced across all government institutions, these initiatives could significantly improve market access for locally manufactured goods, deepen local value addition and stimulate industrial expansion.”

MAN’s DG noted that the implementation of the Naira-for-Crude initiative had reduced foreign exchange pressure within the downstream petrochemical and plastics value chain, while fiscal measures that zero-rated VAT and excise duties on pharmaceutical raw materials and medical devices had provided relief for local manufacturers.

He added that the 2025 Tax Reform Act introduced key provisions capable of improving the industrial climate, including withholding tax exemptions, expanded VAT deductibility on fixed assets and services, phased reductions in Companies Income Tax, incentives for research and development, and fiscal relief for small and medium-scale industries.

The MAN boss also stated that the ongoing harmonisation of levies across states could help reduce the burden of multiple taxation, while the National Single Window platform offers an opportunity to simplify trade procedures and improve supply chain efficiency.

Despite the positive outlook, MAN said manufacturers faced severe challenges following the removal of fuel subsidies, exchange rate liberalisation, electricity tariff increases and tight monetary policies.

Ajayi-Kadir said the removal of the fuel subsidy in May 2023 caused logistics and distribution costs to surge by more than 300 per cent within weeks, while electricity tariffs for Band A consumers rose from about N68 per kilowatt-hour to between N209 and N225 per kilowatt-hour.

He said manufacturers continued to rely heavily on alternative energy sources because the electricity supply remained stable, noting that expenditure on alternative energy rose from N781.68bn in 2023 to N1.11tn in 2024 and further increased to N1.34tn in 2025.

The association disclosed that manufacturing capacity utilisation declined from 61.3 per cent in the first half of 2025 to 57.7 per cent in the second half, while more than 18,900 jobs were affected during the period under review.

Ajayi-Kadir also said exchange rate liberalisation increased the cost of imported industrial inputs, with the naira depreciating from about N463 to the dollar in June 2023 to N899 by December 2023 and later to approximately N1,535 by December 2024.

He said, “Consequently, the cost of imported raw materials rose from N3.04tn in 2023 to N6.64tn in 2024, representing an increase of about 118 per cent. Manufacturing value-added also declined significantly from $45.2bn in 2023 to $21.84bn in 2024.”

The association further stated that inadequate access to foreign exchange at the official market remained a challenge, with less than half of industrial demand currently being met.

MAN added that high interest rates had constrained industrial expansion, noting that prime lending rates averaged 24.4 per cent as of March 2026, while maximum lending rates reached 33.8 per cent in several commercial banks.

According to Ajayi-Kadir, credit to the manufacturing sector fell from N10.88tn in February 2024 to N6.6tn by December 2025, adding that manufacturers also grappled with fluctuating customs duty assessments linked to exchange rate volatility, making business planning and pricing difficult.

The association urged the Federal Government to prioritise affordable access to foreign exchange for productive activities, concessionary financing for industrial investment, stable electricity supply and predictable trade policies.

Ajayi-Kadir said, “Nigeria cannot achieve sustainable economic prosperity without a strong manufacturing base. The country’s long-term resilience depends on its capacity to produce competitively, create jobs locally and expand industrial value addition.

“The current reforms can still deliver meaningful industrial transformation if implementation becomes more coordinated, more responsive to productive sectors and more focused on reducing the structural constraints limiting manufacturing performance.”

MAN’s position is reinforced by the recent African conversation about manufacturing as a national security policy.

In her contribution to The Boardroom Africa 2026 Industry Report, Founder and Managing Director, Senvoice, Marième Doukouré-Amoa, observed that African markets’ tightening of mining codes and local content oversight reflect “a shift away from passive participation in global value chains toward embedding resilience and domestic industrial capacity.”

She noted that “trade and supply chain norms have been fundamentally disrupted, exposing the fragility of systems built on uninterrupted material flows and stable processing capacity.”

Doukouré-Amoa explained that as globalisation faces structural strain, Industrial, manufacturing, and metals strategies are being recalibrated around supply security, regional processing, and long-term value retention.

The International Finance Corporation and Standard Chartered Bank have launched a $300m risk-sharing facility to expand access to supply chain finance for businesses across eight African countries, including Nigeria, as firms on the continent continue to grapple with funding shortages.

The initiative, announced in a statement by Standard Chartered Bank on Wednesday, is expected to support supply chain and trade finance transactions worth about $1.9bn over the next three years, benefiting more than 500 suppliers, including small and medium-sized enterprises.

According to the statement, the programme will be implemented in Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia, targeting sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, and manufacturing.

The facility is designed to help suppliers receive payments faster, thereby improving cash flow and enabling businesses to expand production, pay workers, and invest in growth.

Under the arrangement, IFC, the private sector investment arm of the World Bank Group, will provide guarantees of up to $150m, with an initial commitment of $100m. The guarantees will support transactions denominated in both United States dollars and selected local currencies.

The statement noted that the risk-sharing structure would cover up to $300m in supply chain and trade finance assets originated by Standard Chartered across Africa.

It explained that the programme would deploy financing tools, including payables finance, receivables discounting, and pre-shipment finance schemes, to improve access to working capital for smaller businesses.

“The facility will help ensure their suppliers get faster payments, freeing up the working capital they need to improve production, pay wages, and hire,” the statement said.

The partnership comes amid growing concerns over the financing gap facing businesses in emerging markets, particularly SMEs that often struggle to secure affordable credit despite playing a critical role in economic activity and employment generation.

IFC Vice President for Products and Clients, Mohamed Gouled, said supply chain finance remained one of the fastest ways to address the funding challenges confronting businesses in developing economies.

“Supply chain finance is among the fastest ways to narrow the growing finance gap that businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises, are facing in emerging economies,” Gouled said.

He added, “By partnering with Standard Chartered to support companies at the centre of strategic value chains, we can unlock much-needed working capital at scale for businesses across Africa, including smaller firms and farmers, making supply chains more competitive and boosting job creation.”

The statement projected that the initiative could indirectly benefit more than one million farmers through stronger value-chain linkages and improved access to finance.

Chief Executive and Head of Coverage, Standard Chartered Africa, Dalu Ajene, said the partnership would strengthen supply chains and encourage sustainable business expansion across the continent.

“This $300m facility with IFC underscores our shared commitment to strengthening Africa’s supply chains and enabling sustainable business growth,” Ajene said.

He noted that the bank’s presence across major trade corridors linking Africa with Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas would help channel financing to businesses involved in regional and global trade.

“By expanding access to supply chain finance, we are helping African companies unlock liquidity, manage risk, and invest with confidence,” he said.

Ajene added that the collaboration would empower businesses ranging from large corporations to local suppliers to participate more actively in international trade while supporting job creation and inclusive growth.

The statement highlighted the rapid growth of the global supply chain finance market, which reached an estimated $2.7tn in 2025, representing an eight per cent increase from the previous year.

However, it noted that access to such financing remains limited in many emerging and low-income economies because commercial lenders have traditionally focused on developed markets.

According to the statement, the new facility seeks to reduce risk associated with short-term trade and supply chain finance portfolios, thereby encouraging greater lending activity in markets where capital remains scarce.