| # |
Company |
SEDOL |
Sector |
| 1 |
Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) |
BLR9K51 |
Banking |
| 2 |
Zenith Bank |
B01CKG0 |
Banking |
| 3 |
MTN Nigeria Communications |
BFYWJB0 |
Telecommunications |
| 4 |
Dangote Cement |
B4TFNR1 |
Industrials / Cement |
| 5 |
Stanbic IBTC Holdings |
B8TNMK9 |
Banking / Financial Services |
| 6 |
First HoldCo (FBN Holdings) |
B8GQJS8 |
Banking |
| 7 |
Nestlé Nigeria (Nestle Foods) |
6627759 |
Consumer Goods / FMCG |
| 8 |
Nigerian Breweries |
6637286 |
Consumer Goods / Brewing |
| 9 |
Presco |
6554631 |
Agriculture / Palm Oil |
| 10 |
Aradel Holdings |
BMCCTL1 |
Oil & Gas (E&P) |
Source: FTSE Russell
Banking dominates the list with four names — GTCO, Zenith Bank, Stanbic IBTC, and First HoldCo — reflecting both the sector’s scale on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) and its historically high free-float ratios, several of which sit above 50-80% of issued shares.
MTN Nigeria’s inclusion confirms its position as the most closely watched non-bank candidate, while Dangote Cement’s presence is major for the industrial sector.
Notable Absences and Second-Tier Placements
Not every name landed in the Large Cap tier. Access Holdings and United Bank for Africa — both widely tipped alongside GTCO and Zenith as banking favorites — appear instead in the file’s Mid Cap Inclusions tab, alongside Fidelity Bank, FCMB Group, Guinness Nigeria, Oando, Okomu Oil Palm, Unilever Nigeria, Wema Bank, and Dangote Sugar Refinery.
A further eleven Nigerian names — including Julius Berger, Nigerian Exchange Group itself, Transnational Corporation (Transcorp), United Capital, and NASCON — were newly designated eligible at the Small Cap level.
Two names conspicuously do not appear anywhere in the file under Nigeria: BUA Cement and Seplat Energy. BUA Cement’s absence is consistent with its own free-float disclosures, which have run as low as roughly 1.5-2.3% of shares outstanding — well short of FTSE’s minimum float threshold.
Seplat Energy’s absence is less easily explained by float or liquidity, given a free float above 30%; it may reflect the company’s dual-listed structure on the London Stock Exchange under a separate country classification rather than a Nigeria-specific eligibility judgment, though MoneyCentral has not independently confirmed that explanation.
What Happens Next
FTSE Russell’s own timetable treats the September 2 file as indicative rather than final: queries and revisions run through September 4, with changes locked in from close of business September 7.
The underlying country reclassification — from Unclassified to Frontier Market status — takes effect separately at the market open on September 21, 2026, following FTSE Russell’s August 27 confirmation that Nigeria’s shift to T+1 settlement had not created material problems for international investors.
Passive funds benchmarked to the FTSE Frontier Index Series would be expected to begin adjusting positions around the effective date, with the ten Large Cap names likely to draw the largest share of any resulting inflows given their combined weight in the index’s investable universe.
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