Nigeria’s Stock Market Is Booming. Its Startups Still Won’t List There.

Nigeria’s stock market is on a historic run. The benchmark index has returned 67% in dollar terms this year to become the world’s best-performing equity market. Financial stocks have led the charge, with one insurer returning about 1,400%. Foreign portfolio investment on the exchange surged 274% year-on-year in April. The naira has gained 4% against the dollar.

Yet, in the midst of this record-breaking rally, Nigeria’s more prominent, eligible tech startups, some of which have been tipped to make the jump, remain conspicuously absent.

Three years after the Nigerian Exchange launched a dedicated Technology Board in 2022, designed to attract high-growth startups and deepen capital markets, the platform has yet to record a single initial public offering. Not one venture-backed technology company has crossed the line to list shares on the local bourse.

While Nigeria’s tech ecosystem has produced unicorns like Flutterwave and Moniepoint, raised billions of dollars in venture capital, and contributed nearly 20% to GDP, its most valuable companies are choosing to list elsewhere. OPay recently hired Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan for a potential US IPO. Flutterwave is reportedly weighing a London or New York listing. Tizeti, which had announced plans to list on the NGX, delayed its IPO.

A report by venture law practice TLP Advisory, which surveyed 36 founders, identified a combination of structural barriers. Currency mismatch is the most significant. Some 76.5% of funded startups raise capital in dollars but earn revenue in naira, creating a “fundamental economic tension” that makes a naira-denominated exit less attractive. Foreign investors who invest dollars demand returns in dollars.

Liquidity is another major concern. Compared to global markets such as NASDAQ and the London Stock Exchange, Nigeria’s capital markets are considered shallow, with founders worrying about whether shareholders will be able to trade their shares easily. The NGX’s total market capitalisation of about USD 62 B is roughly 0.2% of the New York Stock Exchange’s USD 32 T.

Awareness is also a problem. The report found that 53% of founders lack sufficient understanding of the NGX listing process. Compliance costs, fears of undervaluation, and high listing thresholds—NGN 50 M for the Growth Board and NGN 420 M for the Technology Board—create further uncertainty.

Perhaps most critically, the standard Delaware–London–Lagos structure common among venture-backed African companies means the holding company and intellectual property typically sit outside Nigeria, giving investors a more stable legal jurisdiction and clearer exit options. Even when businesses generate most of their revenue locally, they remain technically foreign entities with limited incentives to pursue a local listing.

“There isn’t a lot of high-frequency trading activity,” Richmond Bassey, CEO of Bamboo; a Nigerian wealthtech startup, said recently. “Our market is still very young, and there are many challenges to solve. There are not so many options; there are no derivatives. There are many opportunities to grow the market.”

The irony is that Nigeria’s stock market has never been more attractive. Foreign investors are piling in. The country is on S&P Dow Jones’ 2027 watchlist for a possible upgrade from “Standalone” to “Frontier” market status. Dangote Refinery’s upcoming listing could deepen the market further. Yet the companies building Nigeria’s digital future remain on the sidelines.