KEY POINTS

• SEC DG Emomotimi Agama said data, AI and technology will drive Nigeria’s capital market into an era of “intelligent investing.”
• The Commission is developing AI governance frameworks demanding explainability, accountability and algorithmic fairness for market participants.
• SEC’s fintech-bank integration strategy targets 20 million retail investors, with reforms covering faster settlement, tokenized securities and derivatives.

SEC Director-General Emomotimi Agama on Wednesday said Nigeria’s capital market is moving into what he called the era of “intelligent investing,” with data, artificial intelligence and technology-driven regulation set to anchor investment decisions and pull both domestic and foreign capital to the country.

Speaking at the FSDH Investor Conference 2026 in Lagos, Agama said the future of investing will hinge on the quality of intelligence and data investors can access rather than the size of their capital, framing the SEC’s reform agenda as a deliberate adaptation to that shift.

Now the comments position Nigeria’s market regulator at the heart of a wider global conversation on how AI, real-time analytics, distributed ledger technology and algorithmic systems reprice and reallocate capital faster than human discretion can keep up.

Reform agenda takes shape within intelligent investing era

Specifically, Agama said the SEC has embarked on the most comprehensive regulatory reform agenda in its history, aimed at making Nigeria competitive in the evolving global investment landscape.

Indeed, the Commission’s reforms target a forward-looking market structure that can host intelligent investing through faster settlement systems, tokenized securities and deeper derivatives markets. Each of those elements seeks to shrink the friction that has historically discouraged institutional flows into Nigerian assets.

Moreover, Agama said data does not merely inform decisions in the new paradigm but actively participates in them. “We are at the threshold of what scholars and practitioners are calling the era of intelligent investing, a paradigm in which data does not merely inform decisions, but actively participates in them,” he said.

AI governance frameworks

Furthermore, the SEC is developing AI governance frameworks for capital market participants, demanding explainability, accountability and algorithmic fairness from firms that deploy machine learning models in trading, advisory or risk functions.

“An investor in Nigeria deserves to know not only what decisions were made on their behalf, but how those decisions were reached,” Agama said. The framing aligns with global regulatory trends in the United States, European Union and Asia, where supervisors increasingly demand explainable AI in financial services.

Additionally, the Commission’s AI push signals a shift from reactive regulation toward forward-looking oversight, with the SEC trying to set the rules before AI-driven decision-making concentrates power in opaque models that retail investors cannot scrutinize.

Reaching 20 million retail investors

Meanwhile, Agama said intelligent investing must remain inclusive and accessible to ordinary Nigerians. The SEC’s fintech-bank integration strategy targets about 20 million retail investors across the country, an ambitious mark for a market that has long skewed toward institutional players.

He said technology and data-driven tools could democratize access to wealth creation for small businesses, artisans and low-income earners who have remained outside formal investment systems. The framing positions the AI agenda not as an elite shift but as a financial inclusion vehicle.

However, the real test sits in execution. Tokenization, derivatives markets and faster settlement systems require deep technical capacity, capital and inter-agency coordination. Together, those demands will stretch the SEC’s resources and the market’s appetite for novelty.

Whether Agama’s reform package translates into measurable investor inflows will depend on how quickly the rules become operational and how many local firms can pivot to data-rich offerings. Yet for now, the SEC has placed AI and data at the center of its blueprint, with intelligent investing positioned as the framework Nigeria’s market will use to compete for the next decade’s capital.