Afrinvest West Africa is seeing a sharp surge in retail participation on its investment platform, a sign of how rapidly Nigeria’s capital market is digitising – and a trend the firm says could help push the value of the country’s equities market toward ₦140 trillion this year.
The Lagos-based investment firm says the number of customers actively trading on its platform has jumped from fewer than 20,000 users a week during the era of phone-based trading to more than 200,000 digital users today, with between 5,000 and 10,000 new customers added weekly.
The shift reflects a broader transformation in how Nigerians engage with financial markets, as mobile apps replace brokers’ phone lines and retail investors seek returns in equities amid high inflation and volatile fixed-income yields.
According to recent data from the Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS), Afrinvest is one of the top four digital-first firms driving the retail boom in Nigeria, alongside Bamboo, PiggyVest, and Cowrywise.
Between January and May 2025 alone, the firm’s app (now PlutusNeo) accounted for nearly 35,000 new brokerage accounts, second only to Bamboo.
“At one point, customers had to call in to place trades and wait for confirmations,” Afrinvest Group Managing Director Ike Chioke said in an interview on Channels TV, according to details shared by Plexus Media. “Now, everything is visible instantly – trades, holdings, balances – and that transparency has changed behaviour.”
The growth has coincided with Afrinvest’s repositioning of its retail investment platform, formerly known as Optimus, now branded as PlutusNeo – a move the firm says is aimed at scaling its digital offering rather than changing its core business.
More consequential, however, is Afrinvest’s outlook for the broader market.
A ₦140 Trillion Market in Sight
Afrinvest forecasts that Nigeria’s equities market could expand by about 40% this year, pushing total market capitalisation to roughly ₦140 trillion, up from the ₦100 trillion milestone crossed in 2025. In a more optimistic scenario, Chioke says valuations could climb as high as ₦200 trillion.
The market stood at N106 trillion as of Wednesday, having crossed the N100 trillion mark in 2025.
The projection follows a strong rally last year, when the Nigerian Exchange delivered returns exceeding 50%, with some stocks posting gains well above that level. Afrinvest attributes the momentum to improving macroeconomic conditions, a stabilising foreign-exchange market and renewed investor confidence.
Nigeria’s economy grew by an estimated 3.9% last year, according to official data, and Afrinvest expects growth to accelerate to about 4.3% this year.
The firm also points to rising external reserves – now around $45.6 billion – and a narrowing gap between official and parallel exchange rates as key supports for equities.
While interest rates remain elevated, Chioke said the outlook is gradually improving. Afrinvest expects borrowing costs to ease as inflation moderates and global central banks shift toward looser monetary policy, a trend that could lift corporate earnings and equity valuations.
Retail Investors Take Centre Stage
The expansion of Afrinvest’s customer base is an example of a deeper structural change: retail investors are playing a larger role in Nigeria’s capital market than at any point in recent history.
Digital trading platforms have lowered entry barriers, allowing individuals to buy stocks, access foreign equities and earn managed returns through a single interface. Afrinvest says this has helped rebuild confidence after past market crashes that were compounded by weak transparency and settlement delays.
“The biggest issue in previous downturns was trust,” Chioke said. “Investors want to see their shares immediately, know their value and understand what they own.”
Still, Afrinvest cautions that the surge in participation carries risks. The firm warned against speculative trading driven by social media hype and outsized return claims, urging investors to focus on fundamentals rather than price momentum.
Despite the bullish outlook, Afrinvest flagged several threats that could derail market gains, including geopolitical tensions, potential trade disruptions from the United States, election-year uncertainty at home and persistent insecurity in parts of the country.
Editor’s Note: Afrinvest Group Managing Director Ike Chioke predicts that the Nigerian equities market could appreciate by 40 percent in 2026 to N140 trillion, not N160 trillion as earlier stated.
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