Investment Boom: Nigerian Stocks Post World’s Second-Best Dollar Gains, Reclaim $21bn

With a 31% increase in 2026 and a $21 billion recovery in market value after a significant naira depreciation in 2024, Nigerian stocks have produced the second-best dollar gains in the world this year.

Now, the Lagos Exchange’s total market capitalization is over $84 billion, which is nearly 58% more than it was prior to the depreciation of the naira.

Nigeria’s “benchmark index surged 31% this year, delivering the second-best dollar returns in the world,” according to a Tuesday Bloomberg report.

“The rally is far stronger than the 6.4% increase in a measure of frontier-market stocks and the 11% gain in the broader emerging-market index.”

higher corporate profits, a higher naira, and rekindled investor confidence were cited by analysts as the reasons for the improvements.

Companies impacted by the decline of the naira have strengthened their balance sheets and earned a profit again, according to Olabode Williams, an analyst with SBG Securities Ltd. The market is reacting favorably to the fact that many investors are now pricing in growth.

“The rally indicates that Nigerian stocks are becoming more and more appealing to both domestic and international investors, particularly following years of poor performance,” he continued.

Additionally, the naira has improved, rising more than 7% against the dollar to become the second-best-performing currency in the world this year.

As Bloomberg pointed out, “A stronger naira, which is currently the second-best performing currency globally this year among those Bloomberg tracks with a more than 7% advance against the dollar, has also supported stock gains.”

In tandem with the demonstration, foreign participation has increased. The Nigerian Exchange Group reports that non-Nigerian trading in local stocks tripled to 2.65 trillion naira ($1.97 billion) in 2025 from 852 billion naira the year before, marking a 19-year high.

With the planned listings of Aliko Dangote’s 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery and fertilizer plant, Gloria Fadipe, an analyst at CSL Stockbrokers Ltd., a division of FCMB Group Plc, predicted that the market may reach $100 billion this year. “We might see up to 34% capital gains this year if these listings occur,” she continued.

The rally comes after more extensive economic changes. “The devaluation was part of President Bola Tinubu’s push to unify and liberalize the foreign-exchange market and bring in investment,” according to Bloomberg.