Africa is home to $1.7 trillion in listed equities across 29 stock exchanges. From the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the largest on the continent and the 19th-largest globally, to the Nigerian Exchange Group, the Nairobi Securities Exchange, and the Egyptian Exchange, African capital markets offer real depth, real liquidity, and real returns.
And yet, to global capital, these markets might as well not exist, not because the returns aren't there, but because the infrastructure to reach them has been limited until now.
So far, the tokenized securities market has crossed $1.2 billion, with projections reaching $300 billion within the decade. xStocks, powered by Backed Finance hit $10 billion in tokenized equity volume within six months, in December 2025, and went on to be acquired by Kraken. The infrastructure for tokenized equities is no longer theoretical. It's proven, scaled, and attracting serious institutional capital.
But here's the part nobody is talking about: every single tokenized equity is American or European. Apple, Tesla, NVIDIA — all on-chain. Dangote, MTN, BUA Cement nowhere.
This isn't a small oversight. It's a $150 billion structural gap between what African equities are worth and what the world can actually access. And it starts with the continent's most dynamic market.
Nigeria's Inflection Point
The old narrative about Nigeria; volatile currency, unpredictable policy, oil dependency is being rewritten in real time. Not by press releases, but by data.
Inflation has fallen for 10 consecutive months, sitting at 15.1%, the lowest since November 2020. The naira has stabilized around ₦1,345/USD after years of parallel market chaos. Foreign reserves have rebuilt from $33 billion to $48.4 billion in 18 months, the highest level in nearly 13 years.
The structural reforms are tangible. The federal government scrapped NNPC's 30% management fee deduction, meaning more direct oil revenue now flows into the Federation Account. The Dangote Refinery is coming online, reducing fuel import dependency and improving the trade balance. The IMF has cited Nigeria as a case study in reform.
None of this means the hard work is done. But the trajectory has shifted. And the equity market reflects it.
The Alpha Nobody Is Talking About
Nigerian blue-chip equities have quietly delivered some of the most compelling returns on the planet. We're not talking about speculative micro-caps or meme-driven price action. We're talking about Dangote Cement, MTN Nigeria, BUA Cement, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust. Companies with real revenue, real cash flow, and real dividends paid to shareholders every year.
In 2023 alone, companies listed on the NGX paid out over ₦1.5 trillion in dividends. Average dividend yields across blue-chip names range from 9% to 15%. For context: the S&P 500 currently yields around 1.2%. The US 10-Year Treasury sits at roughly 4.1%. Even the best DeFi stablecoins yield between 5% and 8%.
Nigerian blue-chips outperform all of them on yield and they're backed by actual operating businesses in Africa's largest economy.
The returns are there. The track record is there. What's been missing is a way for the rest of the world to participate. This is a market that has been unknown globally and, paradoxically, largely ignored locally.
The Structural Gap
Only 4% of Nigerians invest in equities. In a country of over 220 million people, with a median age of 18 and a rapidly growing middle class, fewer than 9 million have any exposure to the stock market. The contrast is stark: an estimated $50 billion flows through cryptocurrency in Nigeria annually. The appetite for financial participation exists. The infrastructure to channel it into productive capital markets does not.
Traditional brokerage accounts require in-person verification, local bank accounts, and local KYC. Trading hours end at 2:30 pm West Africa Time. Settlement takes T+2. For a diaspora investor in London, Toronto, or Houston, buying a share of Dangote Cement is harder than buying a meme coin on a decentralized exchange.
On the global side, the picture is even more lopsided. The tokenized securities market is accelerating; $1.2 billion today, $300 billion projected, and every single asset in that pipeline is from the US or Europe. The infrastructure exists to tokenize Apple and NVIDIA, but not a single African equity has made it on-chain.
This means $1.7 trillion in African-listed equities remain completely invisible to the fastest-growing pool of global capital: on-chain liquidity.
The Bridge
xNG Markets exists to close this gap by building a regulated infrastructure that connects global crypto liquidity to African equities for the first time. This isn't a trading app built for retail convenience. It's an access layer designed so that capital from anywhere in the world can flow into African equity markets through a familiar, on-chain experience.
Anyone can buy Nigerian blue chips with Naira, USD, or USDT. Borrow against their holdings. Trade 24/7 with instant settlement. No local brokerage account. No T+2 delays. No restrictions based on geography.
The model isn't new. xStocks proved it with US equities; $10 billion in volume, 60+ tokenized assets, and a strategic acquisition by Kraken. They validated that global demand for tokenized equities is real and growing fast. xNG is building the same infrastructure for a market that's been completely left behind: African equities.
The positioning matters. xNG sits alongside xStocks, Ondo, and Backed Finance as regulated infrastructure for the global RWA economy. The difference is the asset class we're unlocking.
What We're Building Toward
Africa's equity markets have delivered the returns. What's been missing is the infrastructure to make them accessible to global capital. Tokenization changes that.
xNG exists to do three things:
- Increase capital market participation beyond 4%,
- Give global investors access to hidden alpha in Africa's largest economy,
- And build the infrastructure rails for an entirely new asset class, tokenized African equities.
The future of African equities is on-chain. You can start today.