Afrinvest bets on IPO boom, African expansion to drive retail investment growth

Nigeria’s rising retail investment culture is pushing investment firms into a new competition beyond stockbroking one centred on technology, seamless access and regional scale.

Afrinvest is the latest firm seeking to strengthen its position in that market with plans to roll out direct IPO subscriptions, expand into cross-border investing and integrate banking services into its digital investment platform.

The company unveiled the strategy during its Afrinvest Meetup in Lagos, where executives outlined plans to deepen retail participation in the capital market while responding to concerns from users affected by recent trading disruptions on the platform.

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A key part of the company’s next growth phase is Afrinvestor 2.0, an upgraded application that allows users to access equities, treasury bills, bonds, commercial papers and public offers from one platform.

Taiwo Ogundipe, managing director of Afrinvest Securities Limited said the platform was also being positioned ahead of major public listings expected in the Nigerian market, including the anticipated Dangote Refinery IPO.
According to Ogundipe, users can now subscribe directly to IPOs through the app without going through traditional manual processes that have historically slowed retail participation.

Victor Ndukauba, deputy managing director of Afrinvest said the company believes retail investing in Nigeria is entering a new phase driven by younger investors searching for alternatives to conventional savings channels.
“A few years ago, nobody really cared about buying stocks or mutual funds. That mindset is beginning to change,” Ndukauba said.

The company is also looking beyond Nigeria as competition intensifies within the digital investment space.

Ogundipe disclosed that Afrinvest is developing a framework that could allow users to access shares listed in other African markets directly through the Afrinvest platform. “We have already done some work around making it possible for other people to invest in Nigeria. So that very soon within the Afrinvest stock app, you will begin to see shares from Ghana, from Kenya,” he added.

The move reflects broader efforts among African financial institutions to build regional investment ecosystems as demand grows for cross-border wealth products and simplified access to capital markets across the continent.
Afrinvest’s expansion plans, however, come at a sensitive time for the company following a major technology disruption earlier this year that affected thousands of retail investors.

The incident, which triggered duplicated trade executions and delayed settlements, drew criticism from users who accused the company of poor communication and weak customer support during the crisis.

Ndukauba explained that the problem stemmed from failures involving external infrastructure providers and exchange connectivity during trading sessions.
According to him, about 94,000 users were affected by the disruption. “We restored all the accounts to where it was. Clients come first. No client would ultimately bear losses from the incident,” Ndukauba said.

The company used the Lagos event as an opportunity to publicly address those concerns and reassure customers about improvements being made to its systems and operations.
Margaret Ofem, Head of Customer Success at Afrinvest said the company is redesigning its support structure to improve complaint resolution and customer response time across emails, calls and social media channels.

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Beyond investments, Afrinvest is also moving to integrate banking services into its platform after acquiring a microfinance banking entity.
Ike Chioke, Group Managing Director of Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited said the long-term goal is to create a financial ecosystem where users can save, invest and manage funds from a single application. “The same app you’re using becomes a bank account effectively,” Chioke said.

Chioke added that the company had learned important lessons from the recent platform challenges and would continue upgrading its systems to support future growth. For investment firms in Nigeria, the race for retail investors is increasingly shifting from simply offering products to building trusted digital ecosystems capable of handling rising transaction volumes and customer expectations.

Afrinvest’s next challenge may therefore not just be attracting new investors, but proving it can deliver the technology stability and customer experience required to retain them.