Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission plans to introduce a National Savings Scheme with tax incentives as part of a wider effort to mobilise domestic savings, expand investment participation and support the country’s economic growth ambitions.
The proposed scheme would allow Nigerians to set aside money for investment toward their future, SEC Director-General Dr Emomotimi Agama said during a strategic partnership meeting between the commission and the Presidency in Abuja.
The initiative is being developed alongside the Nigerian Capital Market Master Plan 2.0, a proposed 10-year framework intended to guide the development of the country’s capital market. Both plans are expected to feature in the Capital Market Conversation scheduled for October 19, 2026, at the State House, also known as the Presidential Villa, in Abuja.
Vice President Kashim Shettima is expected to endorse the master plan at the event. His endorsement had not been confirmed at the time the plans were disclosed.
Savings plan tied to fiscal reforms
Agama said the planned savings scheme would include tax incentives aligned with the Federal Government’s broader fiscal reforms. The reports announcing the initiative did not provide the proposed value of those incentives or specify income thresholds that might determine eligibility.
“The National Savings Scheme, principally, is an inclusion tool wherein every Nigerian is allowed to save, and such savings will now be invested for the future,” Agama said, according to THISDAY.
The programme is intended to create a route through which personal savings can be channelled into productive investment. It also forms part of an effort to bring more Nigerians into formal investment markets rather than leaving capital outside long-term financial instruments.
Details on how accounts would operate, which investment products would receive the savings, when enrolment might begin and which institutions would administer the programme have not yet been specified in the cited reports.
Ten-year direction for capital markets
The Capital Market Master Plan 2.0 is designed to set a decade-long strategic direction for Nigeria’s market and establish measurable indicators for evaluating its progress. Those indicators are expected to include the capital market’s contribution to gross domestic product and the number of investors participating in it.
“The Nigerian Capital Market Master Plan 2.0 is a 10-year master plan that provides the direction of the market, understanding that the capital market is the barometer of the economy,” Agama said, as quoted by THISDAY.
The framework would provide a basis for assessing whether reforms are broadening participation and increasing the market’s role in financing economic activity. Its emphasis on measurable targets also signals an effort to link capital market policy with wider national development objectives.
The SEC and the Presidency disclosed the initiatives at their Abuja meeting ahead of the October event. The partnership places financial inclusion and savings mobilisation within the government’s stated objective of building a $1 trillion Nigerian economy under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Focus on wider participation
Dr Nurudeen Abubakar Zauro, Technical Adviser to the President on Economic and Financial Inclusion in the Office of the Vice President, said the Capital Market Conversation would address investment inclusion, the mobilisation of savings and digital financial services.
The event is also expected to consider products intended to attract more Nigerians to the capital market. That focus reflects the government and SEC’s aim of expanding the pool of individual investors while converting a greater share of domestic savings into funds available for productive uses.
Digital services are expected to be part of the discussion because they can provide channels for reaching prospective investors beyond conventional market access points. However, the reports did not identify specific platforms or products that would be introduced under the proposed initiatives.
The October meeting will therefore be a key stage in clarifying how the savings scheme and master plan would be implemented. Important outstanding issues include the structure of the tax benefits, eligibility requirements, participating financial institutions and the benchmarks that would be used to measure progress over the framework’s 10-year period.
For now, the proposals outline a policy direction centred on encouraging Nigerians to save through formal investment channels, increasing capital market participation and directing more locally generated funds toward economic development.
