🍞 Funding streams

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Nigeria's National Assembly passed its biggest budget yet on Tuesday, rubber-stamping a spending plan that increased from the ₦58.47 trillion President Tinubu originally proposed in December to ₦68.3 trillion.

Tinubu told the Assembly that this budget is meant to address the debts accumulated over several years into a single framework. “In other words, this will assist in bringing all the indebtedness from 2023, 2024, and 2025 together as legacy commitments and incorporate them into the 2026 Appropriation Bill.”

To help finance it all, the Senate also approved $6 billion in fresh external borrowing: $5 billion from First Abu Dhabi Bank to cover the budget deficit and existing debt obligations, and $1 billion from Citi (backed by UK Export Finance) to rehabilitate the Lagos Port Complex and Tin Can Island Port. At least 40% of the loans must be allocated to capital expenditure across the 2025 and 2026 budgets.

The foreign borrowing decision

Just four months ago, the National Assembly approved raising ₦1.15 trillion from Nigeria's domestic credit market to plug the 2025 budget deficit, and that kind of borrowing comes at a cost. To put it in context: Nigeria's total public debt already hit $103.94 billion as of September 2025, with domestic debt making up the larger share.

If the government keeps borrowing huge amounts of money from Nigeria’s reserves, by the time a local business owner comes in asking for a loan, the lenders either say no or charge sky-high interest rates because money is tight. That's "crowding out." The government's borrowing leaves less room for everyday businesses and entrepreneurs.

Officials say that by borrowing from external lenders(Abu Dhabi, London), the government frees up local cash, so businesses can actually access loans at rates that don't cripple them.

The bigger picture:

Tinubu's administration has pushed through some of Nigeria's boldest economic reforms in decades: scrapping fuel subsidies, devaluing the naira, and overhauling the tax system. Revenues are up, but so is short-term pain, and the budget deficit is now projected to widen past 6% of GDP (~$22.7B). The 2026 plan is anchored to a $75/barrel oil benchmark and a 4.68% growth target. If you have been reading the Daily Bread newsletters, you’ll know oil prices have increased, but Nigeria’s petrol industry is experiencing some discomfort at the moment due to external factors (Israel-US-Iran war), and internal chaos (Nigeria’s oil production expectation vs reality)

💆🏽‍♀️Petrol as a luxury item: prices in Nigeria have surged from ₦839 to over ₦1,350 per litre in recent weeks, driven by global crude oil prices topping $117 per barrel amid the US-Iran-Israel conflict. Now, filling stations that used to sell 10,000 litres a day are now moving as little as 300. Motorists are stretching every drop, buying 4-5 litres at a time, and in some cases, opting for carpooling or public transportation. With no subsidy or functional government refineries to regulate prices or cushion the blow, Nigeria is entirely at the mercy of global oil markets and exchange rate swings. Aviation fuel has also crossed ₦2,000 per litre, more than double pre-conflict levels, meaning higher airfares could be next.

🪴Nigeria’s economy is still in growth mode, just easing off the accelerator a bit. The Central Bank’s latest data puts March Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) at 53.2, marking 16 straight months of expansion (anything above 50 = growth). It’s broad too: 31 out of 36 sectors improved, with industry leading, followed by agriculture and services, meaning businesses are still producing, hiring, and seeing new orders come in. But zoom out, and the picture gets a bit less tidy. In February, the Stanbic IBTC Bank Nigeria PMI dipped to 49.7 in January (from 53.5 in December), briefly signalling contraction. The disconnect comes down to methodology: different surveys, different samples. Still, both the CBN and Stanbic IBTC readings indicate that growth is losing some steam, likely weighed down by FX volatility, high borrowing costs, and weaker consumer purchasing power.

💸Funding streams: The World Bank is putting $500 million behind Nigeria’s agriculture sector, approving a new credit facility for the AGROW project aimed at boosting smallholder farmers’ productivity, strengthening value chains, and creating jobs. The focus is on moving farmers beyond subsistence, supporting agribusinesses that source from them, improving post-harvest handling and processing, and targeting key crops like rice, maize, cassava, and soybeans. The project will also roll out climate-resilient seeds, better extension services, and a national digital farmer registry with advisory tools like weather data. Agriculture already employs a huge chunk of Nigerians, but low productivity and weak market access have held it back. AGROW is trying to fix that by crowding in private investment (an extra $220 million expected) and tightening systems around seeds, fertiliser, and land use. If it works, up to one million farmers could benefit over the next six years, along with some much-needed improvements in food security and resilience to climate shocks.

For ten years, Flutterwave has been the infrastructure powering payments for millions of Nigerians and businesses across Africa. Now it’s ready to power even more.

The company announced it has received a microfinance banking license from the Central Bank of Nigeria, meaning it can now hold funds and deposits directly, rather than relying on partner banks to do it on its behalf.

Previously, like most fintechs, Flutterwave operated on a "sponsorship model," piggybacking on established commercial banks to access Nigeria's clearing and settlement systems. That arrangement came with strings: slower innovation and a cut of every transaction going to the sponsoring bank.

Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola revealed that $40 billion has gone through Flutterwave, but "not one cent was retained.” “With this new phase,” he said, “money now stays in our platform. Margins get better. That's the value of owning infrastructure."

What changes for users

Over 1 million SendApp users will get personal account numbers and instant transfers without switching apps. More than 2 million businesses on the platform can now open accounts, manage payroll, run multi-currency operations, and access data-driven lending powered by their own transaction history and Mono's open banking infrastructure. Flutterwave is also planning to issue payment cards to its consumer and business customers, and will open physical branches in Lagos and Abuja.

The lending play

Flutterwave is reviving Flutterwave Capital, its business lending product, with Mono's infrastructure to help recover loan repayments across all bank accounts linked to a borrower's BVN. Non-performing loans (the nightmare of every lender) become a much smaller headache when you can reach across the entire banking system to collect.

What it means for the banks

Flutterwave's relationship with the commercial banks it once depended on just shifted from landlord-tenant to peer. Rather than banks bearing risk on behalf of Flutterwave's customers, it's now counterparty-to-counterparty since Flutterwave's deposits are now insured by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation. As Agboola put it: "Our customers belong to us, because we are also licensed by the same regulator."

The bigger picture

This didn't happen overnight. The move follows Flutterwave's acquisition of Mono in January 2026, which gave it the data connectivity layer to make this viable.

Flutterwave is also not the only new bank in town: Paystack made a similar move just three months ago, acquiring Ladder Microfinance Bank. The race to own the full financial stack in Africa is on, baby.