Seven Insights from Reading Nigerian Newspapers

Got a few late June 2026 copies of The Punch (sells for Naira 300) and This Day (sells for Naira 400) to review. As a reader of daily newspapers in Kenya, I find foreign newspapers to be a fascinating source of news to contrast with the ones in Nairobi. Here are some items categorized by buckets. 

  

1. Banking Stories

• The maximum allowed interest rate is 34.78% in May 2026, down from 35.17%.
• Deposit protection covers 281 million depositors at 914 financial institutions, with 98% fully insured. The protection covers account holders at banks, microfinance institutions and mobile money operators.  
• Nigeria is introducing an overnight financing rate to be accepted as the benchmark for the cost of money. 
• Regulator-driven mergers are happening, and ProdivusUnity Bank is the result of a merger between Prodivus and Unity banks arranged by the Central Bank.
• Cards are not Visa or MasterCard, and monthly dollar limits vary by card tier and bank; for example, at one bank, platinum cardholders have a $9,000 quarterly limit on international transactions (via POS, web, ATM), compared to $7,500 for gold cards. 
• A former Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele, is facing charges for receiving $17 million through an intermediary in 2023.

2. Newspaper Writing Styles 

• They give prominence to the source of the headline story, whether it’s an event (book launch or industry event) or a speech or statement (e.g. from a presidential advisor).  e.g. the President wishing happy birthday to an oil chief is covered on the same page as another on a bishop giving his state of the nation address as is a letter from a man to his dad (who is a governor) urging him to find jobs for the youth in his state (taken from his Facebook).
• The newspapers are adorned with large colour pictures of events and ceremonies. They often take up 1/3 of a page, are clear, and show the people with their names and official titles.  
• Many stories end with "read the full article online" to drive readers to online pages.
• Business pages feature the email and phone number of the editor.
• The Back page is used for news, not sports, which is relegated to a few inside pages. Some stories start on the back page (e.g. 40) and continue on pages inside (35 and 36). 
• A page of "letters to the editor" gets prominence. 150-200 word ones are invited, as are opinion pieces of 1,000 words.
• The Saturday Punch bills itself as the most widely read newspaper, which passes through many hands on a day when people are free from work and less stressed.

3. Newspaper Advertisements: 

• Pages two and three are full-page advertisements by banks. Kenyan papers will be envious of such competition, as it seems advertising has not fully shifted to digital in Nigeria, and they still command good budgets. In fact, there are no half or quarter-page ads by banks, and it’s almost as if no serious bank will advertise on less than one page, in colour.
• But personal adverts are a bigger business than corporate or bank ads. The newspapers are full of personal full-page colour ads such as full-page obituaries, one-year remembrances, happy birthday (to an incredible husband), congratulations from a son to a dad who has got a government appointment, or the President saluting a governor on his birthday.
• State governments like Abia State and Ondo State published their audited accounts like a bank on three pages for 2025, itemizing their cash flow statement, balance sheet, consolidated revenue, and auditors’ opinions. It would be nice to have Kenyan counties publish what the Auditor General reports on their accounts before their governors are summoned to the Senate for hearings.
• The Punch has a notice that they do not demand or accept gifts to publish articles or photographs, and invites reports or any complaints to be sent in.

4. Dangote is Big News 

• Aliko Dangote met President Samia of Tanzania at State House, Dar es Salaam. While the East Africa refinery is planned for Lamu, Kenya, in Tanzania, the Dangote Group has plans for a port, a coal-fired power plant, a urea fertilizer factory and access roads.
• Dangote recently imported 2 million barrels of oil from Libya, the first such shipment ever recorded, and crude from the UAE, comprising two cargoes, following the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. 
• Nigerians are awaiting price cuts by the Dangote Group, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and oil marketers. 
• While the Dangote Petroleum Refinery has not filed for or authorised any IPO-related marketing, the Nigerian Exchange Group CEO says a listing is on track to match the value of all new listings in 2025. Already, there has been a five-fold increase in the number of Nigerians opening trading accounts this year.

5. Investing in Nigerian Shares 

• The 120 listed companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange have a market value of 150 trillion Naira as of June 2026. That’s about 14 trillion Kenyan shillings, while the Nairobi Exchange is valued at about 4 trillion shillings. 
• Top firms are MTN Nigeria (Naira 17.4 trillion), Dangote Cement (16.2T), Bua Foods (10.9T), Bua Cement (10.7T), and Airtel Africa (10.3T). Other large firms are Nestle Nigeria, Lafarge Africa, Nigerian Breweries, Presco, and Aradel Holdings. Notably, banks, while not the largest firms on the exchange, are the main drivers of liquidity; they include Zenith, Guaranty Trust, Ecobank Nigeria, and Stanbic IBTC.

6. Diaspora Matters 

• Nigerians in the UK can now renew their passports online, upload documents, pay, track their applications, and have the passports delivered to their homes without ever coming to the High Commission in London. This will now take 5 days instead of the 6 months before. 
• In the last year, 1.3 million Nigerians had their UK visa applications rejected, second only to India and ahead of Pakistan and China. In comparison, 2.7 million Nigerians were granted UK visas, the highest in Africa, followed by South Africa and Egypt. Over 21 years, the UK has rejected 33% of Nigerian visa applicants, double the UK average of 15%. 
• South African multinationals are feeling the heat of xenophobia. The Chairman of the MTN Group, which has a presence in 19 countries, has condemned the violence, which he blames on leaders in SA.
• 1,000 Nigerians registered with the Federal Government for evacuation from South Africa, and 324 had been flown from Johannesburg, but over 700 remained stranded over the weekend with the June 30 deadline looming. In the last year, over 20 Nigerians have died in South Africa. 
• Six players of Nigerian heritage were selected in the NBA draft. The highest was an ex-Stanford player who Oklahoma picked 17th, and his rights were later traded to Detroit.

7.  It is Election Season:

• Ahead of the January 2027 elections, a judge has refused the registration of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) party, which presidential candidate Peter Obi, who came third in the 2022 election, was going to use in the run for the seat in January 2027. The decision was made after another party complained that NDC was infringing on its logo. NDC says it is business as usual and is appealing. 
• An open letter by the Muslim community in Remo Federal Constituency to the leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) alleges that, despite their high voter turnout, the outgoing and incoming governors and the outgoing and incoming senator are all Christians, as is the member of the House of Representatives and three of the four House of Assembly members. They say that the Muslim population in Remo is between 45-55%, and they call upon the party to address a gap that needs to be reflected in the leadership.

Patient Capital: Ecobank’s Long Game for Shareholders

For shareholders of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), the parent of the Ecobank Group, which has the largest banking footprint on the African continent, the journey has been interesting. 

The Bank has grown substantially since going public in 2006, in its twentieth year. The shares issued then were 454 million; by the end of 2025, these had risen to 24.7 billion with shareholders' equity of $2.9 billion, up from $1.8 billion at the beginning of the year, largely due to higher profits and appreciation of currencies, including the Ghana Cedi, CFA, and Nigerian Naira.

ETI shareholders have built their stakes in different ways over many years: The shares were listed on three West African stock exchanges through a private placement, followed a few years later by a public offer and rights issue. After buying a majority stake in a Kenyan bank, ETI held its 2010 shareholders' AGM in Nairobi as it recapitalised and rebranded it as Ecobank Kenya. In 2011, more shareholders and equity were added through the acquisition of Oceanic Bank of Nigeria, supported by Nedbank. In 2012, the Public Investment Corporation of South Africa became a shareholder of the fast-growing ETI.  

In 2025, Nedbank divested its 21.22% shareholding, which was then acquired by Bosquet Investments, an Africa-focused investment firm. Shareholders alongside Bosquet, ETI’s largest shareholder, include Qatar National Bank, the Arise investment fund, Nigeria's Government Employees Pension Fund, Ghana's Social Security and National Insurance Trust, and some Nigerian state governments. 

Through the years, Ecobank staff and management have also exercised share options and capitalized bonuses, and there have been other share splits, rights issues, conversion of preference shares and loans. ETI now has 639,000 shareholders, of whom 615,000 hold fewer than 10,000 shares.

Ecobank launched its Growth, Transformation and Returns (GTR) strategy in November 2023, designed to ensure long-term growth. The 'Returns' part of the GTR aims to grow shareholder value by increasing return on equity, increasing subsidiary dividends to the Group, and increasing dividend payments to ETI shareholders. 

Growing strength is visible in subsidiary dividends. In 2020, 14 subsidiaries paid dividends totaling $91 million and this has since steadily increased to 23 subsidiaries, which paid $303 million in 2025. Transforming Nigeria, its largest subsidiary, is one of Ecobank's strategic priorities for 2026, and the bank has initiated a targeted sell-down and recovery, which is expected to result in a stronger balance sheet. 

Through a dedicated Investor Relations Unit, ETI’s Board actively engages with shareholders and  recognized that many of them hold small stakes and that dividends are an important part of returns on investment. At ETI’s 38th AGM in June 2026, the Board intends to reward shareholders for their patience with a proposed dividend of $40 million, equivalent to 0.16 US cents per share. The last dividend paid was $28 million after the 2022 results, as ETI has prioritized capital preservation and reinvestment over dividends in other years.

ETI shares are listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange, the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the BRVI in Côte d'Ivoire. Shares are fully fungible and trade at parity across the three markets, and over the last two years, the share price has appreciated by over 300%, further boosting shareholder returns. In 2025, ETI shareholders traded 846 million ordinary shares on these exchanges, showing an active opportunity for value realization. 

ETI’s Management has an optimistic outlook for 2026 as it seeks banking opportunities for Ecobank in high-growth African markets. Alongside scaling the Central, Eastern and Southern Africa (CESA), Ecobank’s fastest-growing region, they aim to grow the Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) and Consumer and Commercial Banking (CCB) businesses through greater internal synergies and collaboration. These will be done while remaining aware of potential adverse effects of events in the Middle East, and one of the strategic initiatives is to revive a China advisory office to target trade corridors in renminbi. 

For patient long-term shareholders who have watched this institution grow from a vision to connect traders in West Africa into a $34.5 billion asset bank spanning 34 African countries, the best may be yet to come.

Del Monte Celebrates 60 Years in Kenya

Del Monte Kenya exports over $80 million worth of products annually, one of the most important sources of foreign exchange in the agricultural sector. Since 2004, it has contributed Kshs 100 billion, equivalent to 0.16% of GDP, while purchasing Kshs 850 million from SMEs annually. It also supports three Saccos with assets of Kshs 2.53 billion and manages Kshs 2.75 billion in pension assets for its permanent staff and casual workers.

These are some of the findings in a new publication on Del Monte Kenya’s 60-Year Impact Report done by Lotus Consulting. While most of the writing covers the last two decades of available data (2004-2024), it also goes into its history of sustainable agribusiness practices and impacts as the company navigated through changes in export markets, ownership, governments, and community needs, human rights challenges, and land uses.

The California Packing Corporation (known as Calpak) took over Kenya Canners, whose plant could process 15,000 tons per year but which by 1963 had ceased pineapple exports. This was the first major investment by an American corporation in Kenya's agriculture sector and the agreement was signed by Finance Minister James Gichuru, Planning & Development Minister Tom Mboya and the Agriculture Minister, Bruce McKenzie, for the Government of Kenya.

Calpak undertook to furnish Kenya Canners with financial, technical research and marketing assistance to expand from 20,000 tons of pineapple per annum to 35,000 tons within 3 years from 1965, offer export outlets under Del Monte trademarks to a worldwide market and to train other Kenyan farmers (outgrowers) to grow pineapple. The Kenya Government undertook to purchase 20,000 acres of arable agricultural land and to lease it to Calpak for 49 years from 1965, renewable for another 49 years. Soon after Calpak became Del Monte Corporation to reflect the prominence of its leading brand.

In 1968, Del Monte exercised an option in the original agreement and bought a majority shareholding in Kenya Canners. It then embarked on a major pineapple expansion program comprising the construction of a new factory complex along with acquisition of more suitable pineapple-growing land, and Kenya Canners became Del Monte's second largest exporter of canned pineapple.

Meanwhile, its parent Del Monte was purchased by tobacco manufacturer R. J. Reynolds Industries in 1979, which later, after another deal, became RJR Nabisco. Its two main food firms were Nabisco Biscuits and Del Monte, which together accounted for 60% of its sales, but its management felt that the tobacco business weighed down its share price, which would have been buoyed by its food brands.

After Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) acquired RJR Nabisco in a 1989 leveraged buyout (LBO), the food companies were sold for $5 billion to pay down the debt. Del Monte was split into three divisions that were sold separately. Over the next decade, ownership of the international operations, which included Del Monte in Kenya, was traded between the UK (Polly Peck, 1989), South Africa (Royal Foods, 1992), and Italy (Cirio, 2002). Elsewhere, Fresh Del Monte was acquired in 1996 by the IAT Group. In 2004, Fresh Del Monte bought the Del Monte Foods units of Cirio for $340 million after the latter was declared insolvent. These include operations in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Then in 2026, Fresh Del Monte acquired the assets of the Del Monte Corporation from bankruptcy court, reuniting the legendary food label under a single group for the first time in four decades. With that, Fresh Del Monte has moved to rename itself the Del Monte Corporation and change its NYSE-ticker listing from "FDP" to "DEL".

What do the next few decades look like for Del Monte Kenya, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fresh Del Monte Produce, and which was hailed by President William Ruto in 2023 as the largest private sector employer in Kenya? 

While it runs one of the world's biggest commercial plantations, able to produce 200,000 tons of fresh pineapple every year, it will be one of its diversified products. Alongside pineapple, which is sold as juices and exported as fresh, canned, or frozen, it has started growing mangoes and avocados to develop high-quality products for local markets and for export. Also, canned beverages and energy drinks will be added as consumer tastes are changing. They will revive an outgrower model in a modern scheme to source from independent farmers, unlike the one that did not work in past decades (1948-1965), but now with new knowledge. And of course, the future includes adding on drones and AI to improve production efficiencies.

Ecobank Group’s 2025 in Review

As it celebrated its 40th year since incorporation, Ecobank, the banking group with the largest financial footprint in Africa, with a presence in 34 countries, recorded an increase in deposits of 24% to $25.3 billion, while net loans to customers went up by 19% to $11.8 billion. It ended 2025 with assets of $34.5 billion, up 23%, and a profit before tax of $801 million, a 21% increase from $657 million the previous year.

Revenue was up 17% to $2.45 billion, and the growth was well balanced: Central, Eastern and Southern Africa, which was the best performing region, accounted for 26% of assets and 37% of profits, while Anglophone West Africa did 23% and 28%, and Francophone West Africa had 37% and 35% of the same. Nigeria, which accounts for 10% of group assets, was the only region that did not record a profit, mainly due to a fourfold increase in provisions to settle legacy bad debts, as management sought to finally address asset quality and capital issues there.

Continued implementation of Ecobank's Growth, Transformation and Returns (GTR) strategy, through technology platform investments and partnerships, led to a cost-to-income ratio of 48.3% in 2025, compared to 52.8% the previous year, as revenue went up by 17% compared to a 6% increase in costs. Revenue was more balanced, with 52% from the Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) side and 48% from the Consumer & Commercial Banking business. CIB achieved revenues of more than $1 billion for the first time, and Ecobank's trade finance loan book increased to $2.3 billion, as it supported more African businesses to grow their trade across borders.  

Ecobank processed digital transactions worth $133 billion, a 30% increase. Payment revenue went up to $305 million, representing 12% of group revenue. This was led by fund disbursements of $145 million, while customer usage of the 8.6 million cards issued resulted in card-related income of $101 million.

To address a gender financing gap on the continent, Ellevate by Ecobank provides support to women-led businesses, and in 2025, it lent over $515 million to women, increasing its portfolio by 194%. The Ellevate program will also benefit from a risk-sharing partnership with the Africa Guarantee Fund to extend financing coverage of 50% to women-owned and SME enterprises in 27 countries. 

Finally, the board of Ecobank has decided to resume a dividend and have the 600,000+ shareholders share a $40 million payment. The shares trade on three African stock exchanges of Abidjan, Accra, and Lagos. The Board has balanced dividends against the need to maintain reserves against exchange rate fluctuations across its markets. The Group's capital adequacy ratio (CAR) rose to 16.7% in 2025, from 15.8% in 2024.

With its strong revenue growth, leaner costs and capital priorities balanced, the Ecobank Group enters its fifth decade as an institution well positioned to deepen financial inclusion and support trade across the African continent.

The Base Titanium Legacy in Kenya

A flagship mining project ends as interest in the sector takes off.

After twelve years of operations, Base Titanium’s Kwale Mineral Sands operation has quietly closed, marking the end of Kenya’s largest mining project to date. What began in 2013 and later became a Kenya Vision 2030 mining flagship, concluded in February 2025 with a final bulk shipment, leaving behind important lessons about responsible mining, community relations, and the challenges of developing Kenya’s mineral sector.

Base Resources invested Kshs 26 billion in the project, with 9 billion spent on local procurement. Over twelve years, they extracted 5.2 million tons of minerals while paying approximately Kshs 11 billion in royalties, substantial revenue for a sector Kenya is still learning to develop. Between 2019 and 2022, Base Titanium accounted for 85% of Kenya’s mineral sector revenue, contributing 28.2 billion shillings of the total 35.2 billion in 2022. This dominance highlighted both the operation’s success and the underdevelopment of Kenya’s broader mining sector.

The company maintained unusual transparency, publishing detailed payment tallies on its website of payments to the Kenyan government, including value-added tax, utilities, and royalties. The company documented not only what it paid to the government but also the expected allocations to be advanced to the county government and local communities, maintaining transparency even as lawsuits emerged regarding the distribution of these funds. This openness set a standard other extractive companies should follow.

The challenges it faced over the decade included disputes over royalty rates that took years to resolve, dozens of court cases that overlapped, delayed VAT refunds, and a three-year exploration moratorium from November 2019 that prevented finding new deposits, even in adjacent counties, to extend operations. Also, major value-addition side investments did not sprout from the project.

With its exit, it leaves behind infrastructure and the company has handed over the 8.4 million cubic meter Mukurumudzi Dam to serve Kwale and the Coast area, power substations and a 16-kilometre transmission line, an 8-kilometre tarmac road, and buildings that can now be used as training centres. It built a ship-loading facility at the Likoni dock on land leased from Kenya Ferry Services, which is now part of the Kenya Ports Authority. The company had development agreements with Likoni, Msambweni, and Mrima Bwiti communities and funded projects in livelihoods, agriculture, education, and health. The company employed local workers and used local suppliers to send 50 trucks daily between the factory in Msambweni and the Likoni dock.

The rehabilitation work is ongoing to transform 2,500 hectares of brown dunes back to green vegetation, by pouring back topsoil, tree planting, grass cover, and compacting. It is hoped to restore the land to be fit for agricultural or forest or other uses. Interestingly, eucalyptus trees, normally dreaded in Kenya for their groundwater-absorbing ability, have been deliberately replanted in parts of the site precisely for that purpose - to help absorb water and stabilize the reclaimed land. A Post-Mining Land Use Committee with government, county, NEMA, and community representatives ensures accountability in the restoration process. While the land needs years to be fully usable, this careful rehabilitation sets a precedent for future mining operations.

Base Titanium proved that mining companies can operate profitably in Kenya while respecting communities and environmental standards. The operation wasn’t perfect; royalty rates could have been higher, and communities are still saying they have not received royalties or are seeking compensation for the use of their land that the government leased to the company.

But compared to other extractive operations, its payments transparency, infrastructure contributions, and environmental restoration represent genuine progress. As Kenya develops its mineral sector, this operation provides a foundation to build on that future mining ventures can learn from, not just lessons about what to avoid. The lessons include leasing rather than buying land, engaging local communities, and employing local people rather than relying primarily on expatriate managers.

Also, when capital-intensive mining ventures are approached with promises of billions or trillions without realistic planning and genuine partnership, they are doomed to fail. This approach proved particularly important in remote areas where development has been limited and where NGOs sometimes politicize projects, creating obstacles for investors.

In January 2025, American firm Energy Fuels bought Base Resources for Kshs 31.8 billion, closing the chapter on Kenya’s largest mining project. They hope to recreate the Base investment experience in Madagascar, where they plan to mine heavy mineral sands in a project called Vara Mada for 38 years.

The Kenya government still needs the Base story to attract new investors, and it features members of the Energy team on summit panels that target international mining and investments.

In March 2026, Kenya invited mining firms with the necessary financing and experience to tender and undertake the exploration of copper in Tharaka Nithi, manganese in Tana River, coltan in Embu, chromite in Samburu, and niobium and other rare earths in Kwale. On to a new chapter of mining.