Nigeria clears tokenized shares trading

Nigeria’s approval of tokenized shares and bonds on the NASD OTC Securities Exchange gives the country a regulated venue for issuing and trading blockchain-based versions of conventional securities. The approval was disclosed this week by NASD and reported by Ecofin Agency, which said the first public digital securities offering is planned for early September. The move places tokenized securities inside Nigeria’s existing capital-markets framework rather than outside it. Licensed brokers will still execute orders, and the Securities and Exchange Commission will still supervise the market. ### What exactly did Nigeria approve? Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission approved trading of tokenized shares and bonds on the NASD OTC Securities Exchange, according to NASD and Ecofin Agency. Bloomberg reported that the approval covers blockchain-based versions of traditional shares offered through the country’s over-the-counter bourse. NASD serves companies that are not listed on the Nigerian Exchange, and its new digital market is being run through the NASD Digital Securities Platform, or NDSP. (ecofinagency.com) NASD said the platform is already live and is designed to handle issuance, trading, clearing and settlement of digital securities. ### How is a tokenized share or bond different from an ordinary one? (ecofinagency.com) The main change is the recordkeeping and transfer system. Ecofin Agency said the new market will represent shares and bonds as digital tokens recorded on a blockchain instead of relying only on a conventional shareholder register maintained by a registrar. Blockstation Inc., a Canadian technology company, is supplying the blockchain infrastructure for the platform. (proshare.co) NASD said that infrastructure is intended to support issuance, secondary trading, clearing and settlement in one institutional-grade environment. ### Why is NASD pitching this at small and midsize businesses? NASD said it designed the platform primarily for Nigerian small and medium-sized enterprises that struggle to get bank credit. (ecofinagency.com) Ecofin Agency cited a May Stears study saying only about 4% of Nigeria’s estimated 40 million micro, small and medium-sized enterprises have access to formal bank credit. Chinwendu Ekeh, NASD’s acting chief executive, said digital securities offer SMEs “a faster, lower-cost and credible pathway” to market financing. (ecofinagency.com) NASD and BusinessDay also said the platform is meant to widen access to capital and broaden investor participation. ### What changes for investors and brokers? Investors may be able to buy fractional interests, which lowers minimum ticket sizes. Ecofin Agency said the platform also aims to enable near-instant transfers of ownership instead of the multi-day settlement cycle common in traditional markets. (ecofinagency.com) Licensed brokers are not being removed from the process. Ecofin Agency said brokers will continue to execute orders under SEC supervision, which means the market structure still runs through regulated intermediaries even though the securities are tokenized. (ecofinagency.com) ### Does tokenization change how these securities should be valued? Proshare said the market impact will depend on the quality of the first issuances, regulatory clarity, investor protection, custody arrangements, settlement reliability, secondary-market liquidity and the participation of licensed intermediaries. (ecofinagency.com) It also said investors will need clear disclosure on rights attached to each security, the underlying assets, valuation methods, cybersecurity risks, transfer restrictions and claims-enforcement procedures. That means the technology changes the market plumbing more than the underlying economics. A tokenized bond still depends on the issuer’s ability to pay, and a tokenized share still depends on the company’s business, governance and investor rights, based on the disclosure issues Proshare said investors will need to assess. ### Why is this happening now? (proshare.co) The policy backdrop shifted in 2025. Ecofin Agency said Nigeria’s Securities and Investments Act, enacted in March 2025, strengthened the legal framework for virtual assets and confirmed the SEC’s authority over digital assets that fall within the capital markets. It also said President Bola Tinubu signed an executive order creating a Virtual Assets Council chaired by the Central Bank of Nigeria to coordinate oversight across agencies. (proshare.co) Nigeria’s over-the-counter market has also been expanding. Ecofin Agency said NASD’s market capitalization rose to 2.12 trillion naira in 2025 from 1.03 trillion naira a year earlier. ### What is the next concrete milestone? Early September 2026 is the next date that matters. NASD said its inaugural public digital securities offering is scheduled for then, and that launch will show which issuer comes first, what instrument is sold and whether brokers and investors use the platform in size. (ecofinagency.com)