SecondSTAX launches portal to facilitate investments in Africa

Institutional investors across the continent will now find it easier to invest in Ghana and Kenya’s exchanges using the cloud-based portal, SecondSTAX said

SecondSTAX has launched a portal that will enable institutional investors across Africa to seamlessly invest in the Nairobi Securities Exchange and the Ghana Stock Exchange. 

Asset managers, large commercial banks and other institutional investors across the continent will now find it easier to invest in Ghana and Kenya’s exchanges using the cloud-based portal, SecondSTAX said. 

The initiative is facilitated in collaboration with Kestrel Capital East Africa and Databank Group. 

Eugene Tawiah, chief executive officer and co-founder of SecondSTAX, said: “We see ourselves as building a bridge that will allow all the capital that is currently restricted to individual markets to have access to the entire continent.” 

Over the last decade, African capital markets have raised more than $246b in debt capital markets, $87b in equity capital markets and equity indices have peaked at over 50% growth across the major regional exchanges, SecondSTAX reported.  

However, various exchanges are often inaccessible to investors outside their home countries, as African capital markets “exist in silos”. SecondSTAX’s platform allows investors to access capital outside of their country. 

Investors will be able to invest in their native currencies, widening the range of assets and opportunities available to more Africans.  

Ekow Afedzie, managing director of the Ghana Stock Exchange, said: “A digital tool that puts cross-border trading at the fingertips of institutional and retail investors to easily buy and sell stocks and bonds through stockbrokers is a great boost to the cross-border trading integration efforts in Africa.”  

Geoffrey Odundo, chief executive of the Nairobi Securities Exchange, added: “Linking markets is a very important priority for us, something that we are also committed to as part of the African Exchange Linkages Project.” 

The launch comes after SecondSTAX raised $1.6m in pre-seed funding from private investors and venture capital firms, including LoftyInc Capital, Orbit54 and STEMeIn.  

The fintech, founded in 2020, is also looking at the markets in Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and Morocco.  

Image: Canva  

Josh Poyser Josh Poyser is an editor at FinTech Intel. He has written about fintech for several years and appeared at FinTech Connect 2023 on the 'Unlocking Success: The Art of Fintech PR' panel.