Trending 
Two high-profile tech listings have become a real-time test of whether Africa’s exchanges can anchor capital raising in the next decade. Strong demand in Johannesburg and Casablanca suggests a shift in liquidity, improved investor confidence, and a maturing pipeline of tech issuers on the continent.
Africa’s public markets appear to be entering a new phase as more tech firms begin treating local exchanges as viable paths to raising capital, while strong demand in Johannesburg and Casablanca promises a shift in liquidity, improved investor confidence, and a maturing pipeline of tech issuers on the continent.
Signals include a combination of bourse reforms, fintech maturity, and expanding listing pipelines, while recent dual tech listings in North and South Africa are the clearest sign of market readiness. And the continent stands to benefit from reshaping perceptions of liquidity and investor appetite.
In Johannesburg, Optasia listed on the JSE on November 4, raising roughly R6.5 billion (US$345 million) after pricing at the top of its offer range. According to JSE disclosures, the deal valued the AI-driven credit and micro-loan platform at about R23.5 billion (US$1.3 billion), making it one of the largest fintech listings on the exchange this year and pushing the company into “unicorn” (valuations above $1 billion) territory.
The company operates across 38 markets, serving more than 120 million users and processing tens of millions of micro-finance transactions monthly. According to Semafor Africa, Optasia is aiming to cover 80% of the continent in the near future.
“The number of people that are unbanked in the world is 1.7 billion, so we are only providing service to six or seven per cent of them. For us, it’s about how we’re going to double this,” CEO Salvador Anglada is quoted in the November report.
In Casablanca, Cash Plus closed its IPO three weeks later, raising about US$82.5 million from a mixed offer of 3.8 million shares. According to disclosures by the Moroccan Capital Markets Authority (AMMC), the offer combined the issuance of 2 million new shares with the sale of 1.8 million existing shares at MAD 200 each, with 5% reserved for employees and 38% allocated to the general public.
The fintech, which handles an estimated 2 million daily transactions across nearly 5,000 outlets nationwide, plans to channel proceeds into scaling its mobile and online platforms after years of building one of Morocco’s most extensive financial-services footprints.
The listing valued Cash Plus at roughly US$550 million, marking the second major fintech flotation of the month across Africa and coming amid one of Casablanca’s busiest IPO seasons in years.
CEO Nabil Amar framed the deal as part of a broader national effort to “involve all Moroccans” in the country’s shift toward inclusive digitalisation, according to local filings.
According to the Bourse de Casablanca, the exchange’s earlier July flotation of health-tech firm Vicenne was oversubscribed 64 times, signalling deepening retail participation and improving institutional appetite.
A larger industrial listing, Société Générale des Travaux du Maroc (SGTM), is scheduled for mid-December, aiming to raise MAD 5.04 billion (US$542 million) via a 20% offer, subject to AMMC approval in November. Packaging group GPC Carton is also preparing for approval, supported by a recent green securitisation fund that raised MAD 250 million (more than US$27 million) to expand eco-friendly production capacity.
Together, the two November debuts signal that African exchanges can support sizeable tech listings with credible demand.
Edward Maphosa, a Harare-based business analyst and partner at CrossBoundary, said the deals show that “local capital markets are not only investible, but they are beginning to demonstrate the depth required for tech and tech-enabled companies to raise meaningful capital close to home.” His assessment aligns with an emerging continental pattern.
According to data from the African Exchanges Linkage Project, tech and tech-enabled firms accounted for a rising share of new-listing enquiries in 2024, especially in markets that have recently overhauled listing rules or automated their trading systems. A second signal comes from large telco-affiliated fintechs, which regulators increasingly view as natural candidates for listing.
According to analysts tracking Nigeria, Kenya, and Côte d’Ivoire, mobile-money scale and high-volume payments infrastructure give these firms the kind of cashflow visibility that equity markets generally reward.
Maphosa argues that “if telco fintech subsidiaries pursue partial listings, they could transform liquidity and reprice what investors expect from African tech.” This could expose retail investors to companies they already use daily, while giving the firms a domestic capital base for regional expansion.
Nigeria is also working to position itself as the region’s leading tech listings market. According to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), rule changes introduced since 2022, including simplified admission procedures for growth companies and incentives for early-stage issuers, have sharply increased the number of pre-listing consultations.
Ethiopia and Somalia, two of Africa’s youngest capital-market ecosystems, are also designing their first IPO pipelines.
According to the Ethiopian Capital Market Authority, at least 18 companies have submitted early expressions of interest for potential listings once the market becomes fully operational, while Somalia’s new exchange is pursuing a similar path, initially targeting banks, telecom firms and logistics companies that already publish audited accounts.
According to Maphosa, their challenge will be market education and depth of investors, but the policy direction mirrors broader regional momentum. However, a final tension shaping the market is whether African tech firms should continue listing in London, New York, or Amsterdam, or test the strengthening liquidity at home.
According to CrossBoundary’s analysis, offshore listings remain attractive for firms seeking scale beyond regional capital pools, but local markets increasingly offer founders greater influence, lower regulatory overheads, and closer alignment with investors.
“If the confirmed 2024 and pipeline 2025 tech listings succeed, African exchanges could enter a period of steady, sector-specific issuances similar to early-stage telecom listings two decades ago,” Maphosa noted.
“Liquidity does not deepen overnight,” he said. “But when local investors repeatedly see real, profitable companies listing at home, trust builds. And trust is the foundation of every functioning capital market.”
Credit: Bonface Orucho, Bird Story Agency
