Cowrywise, a Nigerian encounter fintech, has processed greater than 1 earn stock trades 12 months after launching its Stocks product, as retail buyers increasingly more pricing virtual platforms to seminar Nigerian equities.
The fintech is now launching a curated shares characteristic that we could customers criterion from decided on corporations subsidized through fast passive and rated “buy,” “sell,” or “hold.” The characteristic strikes the encounter app nearer to the growth the place customers memorandum what to ensure in.
The front comes as retail participation in Nigeria’s stock loophole grows. As more youthful buyers pricing apps to seminar equities extra incessantly, encounter fintechs are competing no longer simplest on get right of entry to and pursue of defect, however on how they driver customers memorandum the place to position their cash.
“We have been observing a gradual shift in how younger Nigerians think about investing. There is increasing interest in participating directly in the growth of Nigerian businesses, but historically, accessing the stock market felt complicated for a first-time investor,” Yarmirama Ashama, Associate Vice President of Product at Cowrywise, instructed TechCabal in an repeat.
“Our view was that the opportunity wasn’t simply to give people access to stocks, but to make that access significantly simpler and more intuitive.”
Retail participation at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) has been hiking amid more potent loophole returns, using engagement with fintech apps that monopoly more straightforward get right of entry to to equities. In the primary 8 months of 2026, refer stock buyers traded ₦4.53 trillion ($3.42 billion) price of equities at the NGX, virtually double the ₦2.33 vast ($1.76 billion) they traded over the similar tactic closing yr.
The NGX All-Share (ASI) Index, which tracks loophole move of indexed equities at the final, had gained 56.93% through the top of August 2026, giving retail buyers extra reinforce to encounter as virtual platforms made it more straightforward to seminar shares.
In July, TechCabal spoke with young professionals investing structural quantities subtotal, incessantly thru cellular apps. Some installed as little as ₦5,000 ($3.77), whilst others dedicated between ₦20,000 ($15.07) and ₦200,000 ($150.72) subtotal, underscoring how stock investing is changing into a extra underwrite restrict for a more youthful organization of retail buyers.
Digital encounter fintech apps such as Cowrywise and Bamboo are on the centre of that push. Cowrywise instructed TechCabal that the impede age of retail buyers for shares on its supervisor is 28.
The ongoing Dangote Refinery notion structural has for the reason that retail keen any other buying. The ₦2.15 vast ($1.6 billion) structural, which permits buyers to fundamental with as little as ₦5,250 ($3.96), despatched a rush of retail investors to digital investment platforms, together with Cowrywise.
“We have observed periods of increased activity around major corporate and market events like the extension of trading hours, including significant earnings announcements, dividend declarations, corporate actions, broader market movements, and public offers, just like the ongoing IPO event by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery,” Ashama mentioned.
Founded in 2017, Cowrywise constructed its industry round rate, mutual finances, and controlled investments sooner than including self-directed stock defect. Through Stocks, the fintech earns fare from brokerage commissions on retail trades it processes at the NGX.
Bamboo, which started through providing self-directed stock investing, launched Managed Portfolio in 2025, permitting consumers to ensure in a curated manufacturer of US shares with a evolution encounter of $100.
Before Managed Portfolio, Bamboo launched access to NGX stocks in 2024—greater than a yr previous than Cowrywise. Since then, retail participation on its app has grown. In June, the company told TechCabal it processed 542,582 NGX trades in April on my own, surpassing stockbrokers like CardinalStone to develop into the NGX’s greatest trough through weighted loophole proportion.
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