Nigerian Exchange Limited and SecondSTAX to drive investments to the capital markets
The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) and IT company SecondSTAX have announced a new relationship that would allow institutional investors from all over Africa to make direct investments in Nigeria’s capital markets.
The new alliance was developed in close cooperation with Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited, a well-known Nigerian holding business in the capital market that operates in six key sectors: investment banking, securities trading, asset management, trustee, consulting, and financial technology. The transparent, user-friendly, cloud-based platform from SecondSTAX will make it simpler for authorized broker-dealers, asset managers, large commercial banks, and other institutional investors from around the continent to invest in Nigeria’s leading exchange.
Additionally, investors will be able to invest in their own currencies, opening up a wider choice of resources and possibilities for more Africans and paving the way for greater riches on the continent.
Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa, and the country’s capital markets offer some of the most lucrative investment opportunities worldwide. For instance, the Lagos stock exchange finished 2020 as the best in the world with a 50% rise, the highest since December 2007. Among the 93 stock indexes monitored by Bloomberg, the equity index also held the top spot globally. Some of the exchange’s listed companies reported gains of up to 400 percent. However, because to the walled structure of African exchanges, only residents of Nigeria can access the opportunities.
In addition to consolidating all of Africa’s debt and equity capital markets, SecondSTAX is developing technology solutions for investment firms that will power the smooth flow of capital and institutional investment across the continent, making it simpler to access opportunities in pertinent markets. By securely and effectively channeling orders onto the established, mature capital markets infrastructure in full conformity with local regulations, the platform makes transactions possible. In turn, this gives African investment enterprises the ability to better serve their clients and increase their own financial gain.
The company already collaborates with the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) and the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), attracting capital to these exchanges from all over the continent. Through this partnership, institutional investors from Nigeria will also have easier access to other capital markets that are available on the SecondSTAX platform in addition to new investment opportunities in the capital markets of Nigeria. Following the NGX debut, only Qualified Institutional Investors who are able to execute trading orders with a minimum value of USD 10,000.00 (or the equivalent amount in NGN) would initially have access to the service. This cap will be lowered over time to accommodate more clients.
According to Eugene Tawiah, CEO and co-founder of SecondSTAX, “This agreement with the Nigerian Exchange Limited is a critical milestone in our road to integrating all the capital markets across Africa to facilitate more frictionless investment flows. The capital markets in Nigeria provide a wealth of profitable options that institutional investors from other countries have not yet had access to. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s institutional investors have often found it difficult to make investments in other African capital markets. We are interested to watch how investors take advantage of the numerous opportunities that exist across the continent as a result of this alliance, which tackles both issues.
The CEO of Nigerian Exchange Limited, Temi Popoola, applauds SecondSTAX for its innovative approach to promoting institutional investments throughout Africa. The African Exchanges Linkage Project, which aims to integrate capital markets on the continent, and our partnership with Afreximbank’s Pan African Payments Settlement System (PAPPS) to facilitate frictionless cross-border transactions within the African capital markets are both closely aligned with our ongoing efforts to foster innovation and growth in our market.
To encourage participation and investment in the Nigerian and African capital markets, we at NGX remain dedicated to promoting inclusive growth and are open to working with more capital market innovators. We anticipate the possibilities this alliance with SecondSTAX will open up and the advantages it will bring to the continent.
Afrinvest’s Group Managing Director, Ike Chioke, stated, “As a major capital marketing holding firm, we are constantly leading the way in advancing technologies that expand Nigeria’s capital market. We are excited to work with SecondSTAX to expand the potential for bringing cash into Nigeria’s capital markets and to give investors there more investment options.
