African markets modernize: reforms, T+1 and crypto uptake

Securities executives from across Africa and abroad met at The Network Forum: Africa last week to discuss capital-market reforms, settlement changes, digital assets and investor access.

Babatunde Majiyagbe of Standard Bank opened the conference with demographic context: Africa is about three times the size of Europe, has more than twice Europe’s population, and by 2050 one in four people worldwide will be African. He noted projections that Nigeria could become the world’s third-most populous country.

Delegates described a decade of infrastructure upgrades and regulatory reform across several markets that participants say has changed how some investors approach African markets.

Yasser Zaazaa, managing director and CEO of the Egyptian Central Securities Depository, outlined a three-year program that consolidated multiple systems into a single CSD, introduced SWIFT messaging, harmonized settlement cycles, linked settlement to the central bank’s real-time gross settlement system and sped tax refunds for foreign investors. Trading values in Egypt rose 400% in the year after the migration and trade volumes increased 250% year-on-year. Foreign investors now at times hold more than half of government debt.

“Investors, whether domestic or international, will only commit capital where they are confident that their assets are safe, where transactions are irrevocable and final, and the infrastructure itself is transparent and neutral,” Zaazaa said.

Speakers reported uneven progress across the continent. Richard Lain, head of sub-Saharan Africa securities services at J.P. Morgan, noted that secondary markets remain thin in many jurisdictions and that foreign capital faces convertibility risks, currency volatility and settlement systems that differ widely from market to market.

Several delegates raised governance concerns where central securities depositories remain embedded within exchanges. Zaazaa observed that separating trading venues from post-trade entities supports governance, risk management and market integrity. “If the stock exchange is influencing post-trade activity, it does not present the market in the best way to investors,” he said.

Participants discussed Nigeria’s timing and operational challenges. The country moved to a T+2 settlement cycle six months ago and plans to shift to T+1 next month. Executives warned that shortening settlement cycles without resolving supporting processes can create logistical friction: settlements occur early in the morning, funding must be available before settlement times, extended trading hours can delay trade confirmations past foreign-exchange market close, and those timing mismatches can increase pressure on custodians and settlement banks.

Access to capital was a central concern for institutional investors. Craig Stanley, chief operating officer at Enko Capital Management, warned that prolonged capital entrapment can prompt regulated investors to withdraw permanently under ERISA rules, making reliable exit mechanisms a priority for attracting large foreign pools of capital.

Delegates also examined digital assets. They estimated roughly one in two adults in Africa holds a digital wallet and that 40 million to 50 million people in sub-Saharan Africa actively engage in crypto markets. Stablecoins are being used for cross-border payments and as a store of value in countries with volatile fiat currencies. South Africa and Nigeria were identified as leaders in adoption and regulation; South Africa has more than 300 licensed crypto-asset providers. Ghana and Kenya are developing regulatory sandboxes and pilot regimes, and some panelists reported growing institutional interest in tokenization for potential efficiency gains and risk reduction.

Majiyagbe closed the forum by urging greater integration and standardization of market infrastructure to support broader investor participation.