In Nigeria, there exist at least four platforms that offer both local and foreign stocks to individuals. Chaka is one such platform. Yesterday, They announced the closing of a $1.5 million pre-seed round to power digital investments for individuals and businesses in Nigeria.
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The global financial crisis that occurred in 2008 partly affected the stock market, giving people reasons not to engage in stock trading. This crash also influenced the Nigerian capital market and due to the number of losses by Nigerians, stock trading is not embraced by a chunk of the public.
Understanding the way stock works is difficult for an average Nigerian who is interested, partaking in trading local stocks is quite tough and practically impossible for foreign ones to join in.
This struggle was identified by Tosin Osibodu who left the U.S for Nigeria to start Chaka, the company was officially launched in 2019, According to Osibodu, Chaka aims to create opportunities for Nigerians to invest in dollar assets and at the same period give foreigners s opportunity to invest in Nigerian assets.
“If there’s more demand in the market, over time, we expect there’ll be more supply. If you fast-forward over a long period, we expect that our local capital markets will continue to grow, We will provide border-less digital access to multiple solutions, and so it’s not just about Nigerians investing in the market, it’s about making the markets accessible for people locally and globally“
-Tosin Osibodu, CEO Chaka
Last month, Chaka acquired the first fintech license issued by the SEC, making it the only investment platform to operate as a digital sub-broker. With the new license, Chaka can power multiple brokers and provide access to different digital investment offerings in addition to being a digital sub-broker.
According to Nigeria’s SEC, the bottom line was to bring the activities of these platforms under its purview as part of its efforts to safeguard the investing public. Although Osibodu says Chaka had always engaged the SEC since the company was formed in 2019.
Chaka’s local assets are registered with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) and regulated by the Securities Exchange Commission of Nigeria (SEC). Dollar assets, on the other hand, are regulated by the U.S. FINRA and the U.S. SEC.
