Finance minister Taiwo Oyedele said on 19 October that NNPC Ltd, Nigeria LNG and other "choice assets of government" should be listed on the stock market, and promised the government would lead a clean-up of NNPC before any listing. He was speaking at the National Capital Market Conference.
Why he wants it:
Oyedele gave three reasons. Listing would "improve transparency", let ordinary Nigerians share in the wealth of assets they already own through the state, and deepen the capital market.
He also offered some striking arithmetic. Saudi Aramco, he said, is worth about $1.6 trillion. Give NNPC just 10% of that and it would be worth around $160 billion. That was an illustration, not an official valuation, but it makes the point: the whole Nigerian Exchange was worth about ₦162.5 trillion, or roughly $122 billion, in early October.
He argued that once the economy reaches $1.5 trillion, the capital market "cannot and should not be less than $1 trillion". The Securities and Exchange Commission's director-general, Emomotimi Agama, said its master plan aims to grow the market from about ₦250 trillion to ₦750 trillion by 2036.
The catch:
Listing requires books investors can trust, which is why Oyedele led with the clean-up. NNPC's profit after tax fell 35.4% to ₦2.28 trillion in the first half of 2026.
NLNG is a different puzzle. The government owns 49% through NNPC, and Shell, TotalEnergies and Eni own the rest, so any listing would need its foreign partners on board. It is also politically sensitive right now: this week the presidency rejected a claim by Oyo governor Seyi Makinde that it was withholding NLNG dividends from the states, saying NLNG had paid about $21.5 billion to the Federation over 25 years.
No timeline was given for either listing.
What it means for you:
If it happens, it would be the first chance for ordinary Nigerians to own a direct slice of the country's biggest oil and gas assets, much as the Dangote refinery IPO has opened up a private giant.
Listing also brings obligations: quarterly results, audited accounts and shareholders asking questions. For two companies that have long been hard to see into, that alone would be a change.