When Dangote Refinery began selling shares in September, Nigerians might subscribe by way of dozens of banks and digital funding apps for as little as ₦5,250 ($3.96) for ten items. Investors elsewhere in Africa had fewer choices. The $1.6 billion provide was registered solely in Nigeria, leaving consumers in markets resembling Kenya and Botswana topic to native securities guidelines and with restricted distribution.
The hole helps clarify Roqqu’s subsequent guess: the Nigerian-founded cryptocurrency exchange wants to put native equities on blockchain networks and make them out there to eligible buyers overseas. The startup already offers its users tokenised US stocks through Ondo Finance, a US-based firm that points blockchain tokens linked to publicly traded shares, and now wants to reverse that circulation.
Emmanuel Peter, Roqqu’s head of buying and selling and markets, sees the firm as the distribution layer slightly than a alternative for the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), the nation’s inventory exchange. Existing brokers would purchase shares, authorised custodians would maintain them, and Roqqu would supply the infrastructure to challenge corresponding blockchain tokens. Other crypto exchanges might finally distribute the similar tokens, widening access past Roqqu’s customers.
Roimot Ibitoye, the firm’s chief compliance officer, stated the tokens could be matched by shares held in custody, with common checks to stop over-issuance. Roqqu advised TechCabal that it intends to distribute dividends, execute inventory splits, and supply different shareholder advantages.
According to its executives, Roqqu is participating with regulators, brokers, custodians, and fund managers because it develops the proposed product. The firm has not named its institutional companions or recognized which Nigerian shares it plans to tokenise first. Its executives count on Nigerian tokenised securities to grow to be out there earlier than 2027, though the product’s regulatory standing and launch stay unclear.
How a Nigerian share turns into a token
As an illustration, contemplate a Kenyan investor in search of publicity to 1,000 shares of a Nigerian financial institution. A attainable construction would contain an authorised Nigerian dealer shopping for the shares on the NGX and a regulated custodian holding them by way of the Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS). An issuer might then create 1,000 corresponding tokens, assuming every token represented one share.
The investor might purchase these tokens by way of an authorised platform, topic to the guidelines governing their sale in Kenya. But Roqqu has not disclosed the full preparations for connecting token holdings to enforceable pursuits in the underlying shares, passing by way of shareholder advantages, or dealing with redemptions.
● TC DATA LAB / INTERACTIVE EXPLAINER
How 1,000 Nigerian shares might grow to be 1,000 tokens
A Kenyan investor wants publicity to a Nigerian financial institution.
Follow the attainable route from shares purchased on the
Nigerian Exchange to blockchain tokens supplied overseas.
Tap any step to see what it does.
Traditional securities infrastructure
Proposed token distribution
Unresolved authorized hyperlink
01 / THE UNDERLYING SHARES · NIGERIA
Real financial institution shares could be bought and held
utilizing the present Nigerian securities system.
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02 / THE CORRESPONDING TOKENS · CROSS-BORDER
A proposed token construction might present eligible
buyers overseas with publicity to these shares.
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Between custody and token issuance:
the enforceable authorized hyperlink stays undisclosed
1,000
Underlying shares held
1,000
Corresponding tokens issued
EXPLORE THE PROCESS
STEP 1 OF 6
Nigerian Exchange (NGX)
The Nigerian financial institution’s underlying shares commerce on
the NGX. The hypothetical tokenisation course of
begins with unusual listed shares, not with
a token created out of nothing.
1,000 tokens don’t mechanically imply direct
possession of 1,000 shares.
Roqqu has not disclosed the full preparations
linking token holders to enforceable pursuits
in the underlying shares, the passing by way of
of voting or dividend rights, or token redemptions.
Any sale to Kenyan buyers would even have to
adjust to relevant Kenyan securities guidelines.
“If we’re saying today that we are buying 100 million [Dangote] shares, there needs to be some sort of verification to confirm that we actually have those 100 million shares,” Ibitoye stated. “And if we’ve minted [100 million tokens], there’s supposed to be some weekly attestation to ensure that the current position we say we have, and what is currently being minted and available, is still the same thing.”
Access just isn’t the similar as possession
The business argument has substance: tokenised equities in the US have a distributed worth of $3.32 billion, pushed by shares, according to the tracker RWA.xyz. Tokenisation has additionally enabled Africa-focused firms, resembling Daya, Luno, Roqqu, and Blockchain.com, to provide customers publicity to US equities by way of blockchain-based tokens, extending international access.
Tokenisation might assist ease illiquidity in capital markets, however provided that wider access brings extra consumers and sellers into the market, the European Central Bank (ECB) said in a paper in April.
For Nigeria, the alternative is to widen overseas participation in its personal inventory market. Foreign buyers accounted for just 4.89% of fairness transactions on the NGX in August; that’s ₦62.03 billion ($46.63 million) of the ₦1.27 trillion ($955 million) traded in the month. Since the begin of 2026, overseas participation in Nigeria’s inventory exchange has remained at 10.43% of whole shares traded. Tokenisation might place native securities earlier than buyers who hardly ever use Nigerian brokerages.
Yet, Dangote’s providing exposes the restrict of that proposition. Nigerian buyers already purchase shares by way of cell apps and different low-cost channels. A token, by itself, wouldn’t make an unregistered Nigerian safety authorized to promote in Kenya or Europe. Its benefit would have to come from cheaper distribution, quicker settlement, or a compliant manner to attain buyers that present brokers can not serve.
Tokenisation doesn’t mechanically confer shareholder rights. Those rights depend upon the token’s authorized construction and its connection to the underlying shares.
In September, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a five-year innovation exemption, permitting restricted buying and selling of tokenised listed shares on venues assembly its circumstances. Holders should retain the similar voting, dividend, and different rights as typical shareholders. Synthetic merchandise that solely monitor costs don’t qualify, and listed firms can object to third-party tokenisation.
While tokenisation globally continues to be early, in markets like the US, the place the regulator has given its clear stance, a number of gamers, resembling tokenisation infrastructure firms Securitize and Ondo Finance, are already energetic in the US market. Ondo has individually constructed a US custodial mannequin that allows shareholder voting.
In essence, if Nigeria’s inventory market have to be tokenised, it nonetheless wants the conventional gamers, and presumably the listed firms themselves, to come on board. These firms might want to provide part of their shares to tokenised distribution platforms to access international capital.
The more durable half is the market beneath the token
Nigeria’s Investments and Securities Act (2025) expressly brings digital belongings below securities regulation, notably blockchain-based variations of equities, which, whereas digital tokens, characterize items of possession specifically firms.
In January, the Nigerian SEC set a minimum capital of ₦1 billion ($703,000) for real-world asset tokenisation platforms and ₦2 billion ($1.5 million) for digital asset exchanges. Its proposed guidelines in August lowered the requirement for tokenisation platforms to ₦500 million ($376,000), though the regulator has yet to confirm whether or not that change has taken impact. NASD, the Nigerian exchange for unlisted securities, can also be developing a blockchain-based platform to challenge and switch digital securities.
None of those steps quantities to blanket permission for a crypto exchange to create tradable variations of listed shares. Roqqu nonetheless wants a construction that reconciles blockchain balances with the CSCS and clarifies who legally owns a share.
Fractional token holders nonetheless want enforceable custody and nominee preparations to train voting rights and recuperate belongings if an middleman fails, which is why the firm is working with conventional asset administration, brokerage, and custodial companions.
Liquidity creates one other complication. If the tokens commerce exterior NGX hours, buyers might purchase and promote them whereas the underlying share market is closed.
Say a share final traded at ₦100 ($0.075), for instance. If an investor wants to promote their token at evening however the solely purchaser presents ₦90 ($0.068), the investor should both settle for much less or wait. The share backing the token doesn’t assure {that a} tokenised inventory investor can money out instantly at ₦100 ($0.075). Roqqu has not disclosed who would supply that liquidity or how redemptions would work.
The firm stated it’s focusing on the alternative to make Nigerian securities simpler to maintain and commerce with out weakening the rights hooked up to them. But the problem is proving that blockchain provides buyers, liquidity, and enforceable possession, whereas attracting curiosity from establishments able to making it occur.
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