Buying shares on African exchanges: NGX, NSE, BRVM and GSE

You buy through a licensed broker

On each exchange in this guide you do not deal with the exchange itself. You open an account with a firm that the exchange or the market regulator lists, and that firm places your orders. Before you send money, find the firm on the official list under its exact name and ask for its fees in writing. Below is what each exchange or regulator publishes, as we read it on 28 October 2026. Hours and settlement rules are revised from time to time, so check the source before you rely on a time or a date.

Nigeria: Nigerian Exchange (NGX)

• Who places your order: “an investor must appoint a securities dealer/stockbroker who is a registered Trading License Holder of NGX to facilitate account opening and trading”. The dealer asks for documents that meet the KYC requirements.
• Official list: the NGX “Find a Broker” page holds a Trading License Holder directory that shows each firm’s status (active, inactive, or deregistered by the SEC). The NGX notes that the list changes and that choosing a firm from it is at the user’s own risk.
• Hours: “Market hours: 9.00 to 4.00”. The session table starts with a pre-open at 9:00am, continuous trading from 9:30am and the close at 4:00pm.
• Settlement: the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) moved equities and commodities cleared and settled by the Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) to T+1 from Monday 1 June 2026: trades “shall settle one business day after the trade date (T+1)”. A circular of 12 August 2026 sets the settlement time at 5:00 p.m. on T+1.
• Foreign investors: the NGX says that investors, domestic and foreign, can hold their assets with the CSCS, under their dealer or through a licensed domestic custodian. The SEC adds that “foreign portfolio investors are not required to prefund their accounts”.

Kenya: Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE)

• Who places your order: under the NSE’s trading rules for equities, listed shares trade through its automated trading system, where orders are entered by trading participants, the firms admitted as such by the exchange. The NSE’s “Mobile and Online Trading” page invites you to “Choose your stockbroker” and names the firms that offer online and app trading.
• Official list: the NSE’s “List of Trading Participants” page gives each firm’s name, code, address and contacts.
• Hours: trading “shall be conducted in sessions commencing at 9.00 a.m. and closing at 3.00 p.m. each day”: pre-trading from 8.45 a.m., an opening auction from 9.00 a.m., regular trading from 9.31 a.m. to the 3.00 p.m. close.
• Lot size: “The minimum board lot on the Normal Board shall be 1 security.”
• Settlement: “All transactions shall be settled by T+3.” These are the rules the NSE publishes in a file dated July 2025.

West Africa: Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM)

The BRVM, based in Abidjan, is the regional stock exchange of the West African Monetary Union (UMOA). Its list of brokers covers Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, the eight countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU).

• Who places your order: the BRVM says that only management and intermediation companies (SGIs) are authorised to trade securities listed on the BRVM, and that all transfers of listed securities go through an SGI unless the BRVM grants an exemption (our translation).
• Official list: the BRVM’s “Courtiers (SGI)” page lists the SGIs with their addresses and contacts, country by country.
• Account and fees: you open a securities and cash account with an authorised intermediary by signing an agreement and an account-opening form. Each intermediary sets its own prices, but they are approved by the AMF-UMOA, the market regulator. After each trade you receive an “avis d’opéré” showing the price, the brokerage fee, the fees of the BRVM and of the central depository (DC/BR), taxes and the net amount. The BRVM operates as a cash market.
• Hours (UTC): pre-opening 09:00 to 09:45, opening fixing at 09:45, continuous trading 09:45 to 14:00, pre-closing 14:00 to 14:30, closing fixing at 14:30, trading at the last price 14:30 to 15:00, and the market closes at 15:00. Each time carries a random margin of plus or minus 60 seconds, and the hours can change on the eve of public holidays, which the BRVM announces by notice.
• Settlement: BRVM Instruction No. 03-2025/BRVM/DG of 2 December 2025 cut the settlement-delivery cycle from T+3 to T+2, from its publication in the official price bulletin (BOC).
• Investors from outside WAEMU: the WAEMU exchange regulation says that foreign direct or portfolio investment in a member state is free, subject where applicable to national administrative formalities, and that its proceeds are domiciled with an authorised intermediary (Article 15). For residents of the CFA franc zones, see our guide on investing abroad from the CFA franc zone.

Ghana: Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE)

• Who places your order: the Securities and Exchange Commission of Ghana explains that individuals and companies “can buy shares of companies through a broker (In Ghana, is called broker-dealer or LDM) of the Stock Exchange”.
• Official list: the SEC’s register of licensees lists firms by type; on 28 October 2026 it showed 34 licensees under “Broker Dealer”.
• Hours and settlement: the GSE’s own website asks AI agents not to read it, so we did not, and we give no GSE hours or settlement cycle. Take them from the exchange’s website or your broker.

JSE and EGX

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s website refused our browser, and the Egyptian Exchange’s website did not answer. This guide therefore gives no hours, settlement cycle or broker list for them. If you invest there, take these facts from the exchange’s own website or your broker, and check the broker with the market regulator.

Before you open an account

1. Find the firm on the official list (NGX directory, NSE list of trading participants, BRVM list of SGIs, SEC Ghana register) under its exact name, and check its status.
2. Ask for the full fee schedule in writing: commission, exchange and depository fees, and taxes.
3. Ask where your shares will be held: at the central depository in your name, or through a custodian.
4. Ask how long a sale takes to settle and when you can withdraw the money.
5. If you send money from another country, ask your bank which exchange-control rules apply first.