Nigerian Stock Exchange to begin online trading by end of September

The Nigerian Stock Exchange will deploy a new trading platform that will allow investors trade from their mobile phones and personal computers, officials said.

The new GenX trading platform, which gives investors access to the exchange from various devices and offers faster information, is expected to be rolled out before the of September, Chief Executive Officer Oscar Onyema said today at a conference in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos.

'This will revolutionize the way all stakeholders interact with the market,' he said.

The bourse in Africa's biggest oil producer has set a goal of achieving a market capitalization of $1 trillion by 2016 from current $73 billion, Onyema said last year. The new technology will allow the exchange to reach an estimated 40 million domestic investors, up from the current 5 million, said Ade Bajomo, executive director for market operations and technology at exchange.

The platform will enable sub-Saharan Africa's largest bourse, after South Africa's, to trade options in 2014 and futures in 2015 to help deepen the market.

Domestic investors in Africa's most populous country, who accounted for as little as 33 percent of trading in 2011 after a market crash, overtook foreign buyers with 58 percent of volumes last year, Onyema had said in May.