The line between policy and commerce blurs when a monetary authority becomes a market operator. This is the reality facing Nigeria as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which is already the largest shareholder of the FMDQ Securities Exchange (FMDQ) with roughly 15 per cent of the exchange, attempts to assume direct control of the fixed-income trading and settlement platform from November 2025.
Even though the CBN has argued that it needs complete visibility and transparency. the move raises fundamental governance concerns. FMDQ is an exchange registered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and government securities are capital market instruments that fall squarely under SEC jurisdiction. They are not the CBN’s monetary policy mandate, and a regulator that also operates the market risks the “referee and player” problem that could undermine the institutional credibility prized by global portfolio investors.
A nurtured irony
The development has an embedded peculiarity. Specifically, the
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