Airtel Money began conditional trading on the London Stock Exchange this morning in a £5.3 billion market debut, dubbed Africa’s Revolut.

Shares, which were open only to investors allocated stock in the offer, were trading flat at around 194p.

But armchair investors are rushing to sign up to the City’s largest IPO in five years ahead of full admission on October 14.

It is the ninth most popular initial public offering on AJ Bell’s investment platform based on the number of customers applying to take part in the offer, it said.

Airtel Money is proving popular among retail investors ahead of full admission next week

Airtel Money, a subsidiary of Airtel Africa, which offers mobile payment services in 13 countries across Africa, is a subsidiary of FTSE 100 telecoms group Airtel Africa, whose shares have trebled in less than two years.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) has clarified that its ongoing petrol discount is a temporary customer relief measure and does not amount to a restoration of the petroleum subsidy abolished in 2023.

In a statement issued on Friday by Chief Corporate Communications Officer Andy Odeh, the company said the N66-per-litre sales discount, first introduced on 1 October 2026 to mark Nigeria’s 66th Independence Anniversary, will continue until 31 October 2026 at NNPC Retail stations nationwide.

NNPC stressed that the initiative is designed to ease the burden of rising fuel prices linked to elevated global crude oil costs and the Middle East conflict. It applies only to NNPC Retail outlets and does not set a uniform national pump price or change the market-based pricing framework for petroleum products.

“This discount is a customer relief initiative and does not represent the reintroduction of petroleum subsidy,” the statement said. The company urged the public to disregard any interpretation of the measure as a return to the subsidy regime.

The clarification followed comments by Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Taiwo Oyedele, who explained that the discount is funded solely from NNPC Retail’s own profit margin and involves no public funds from the federal budget or Federation Account.

SEID, a marketing communications and market intelligence firm in Lagos, has estimated that the Manufacturing industries in Nigeria is sitting on more than N40 trillion in untapped manufacturing opportunities.

The Managing Partner at SEID, Tubosun Akeju, disclosed this in a report -The Nigerian Manufacturing Opportunity Report 2026 launched by the during the 54th Annual General Meeting of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, held at the Oriental Hotel.

Akeju emphasised that the report provides decision-makers with the insights on opportunities that are most immediate, where Nigeria is already making progress and what needs to be done better to unlock greater value.

“The opportunity is to understand where those strengths exist, deepen them, and build the competitiveness required to capture more value locally and compete beyond our borders,” he said .

The report examines manufacturing opportunities across Nigeria’s subsectors, states, value chains and industrial clusters, while identifying areas where existing strengths can be deepened and competitiveness improved.

It said that Nigeria’s manufacturing landscape was shaped by distinct areas of industrial strength, with different states, regions and value chains demonstrating varying levels of scale, specialisation and competitiveness.

The report noted that this created an opportunity to build on existing capabilities rather than adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to industrial development.

Manufacturing activity is spread across states with different levels of scale, specialisation and growth.

The South-West remains the country’s largest manufacturing zone, while other regions are developing strengths in areas ranging from food and agro-processing to textiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cement, steel and light manufacturing.

The report maps these differences to show where investment and industrial development can build on existing capabilities.