Nairobi Securities Exchange plans dedicated tech board to lure startups

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) is planning a dedicated technology board to court venture-backed (VC) startups to public markets, as it seeks to shake off its reputation as a home for blue-chip companies like banks, telcos, and brewers.

Speaking during an Enza Capital session at the open bell ceremony on the sidelines of Africa Tech Summit (ATS) on February 12, NSE chief listing officer Gift Kori said the bourse was actively exploring a specialised tech segment that would sit under its existing market structure but be tailored to high-growth, early-stage companies across the continent.

“We’ve always had this market perception that the NSE, particularly, is for blue chips,” he said. “That only the very big companies can come here to raise capital. That’s something we are deliberately trying to change.”

The push follows a reassessment of earlier efforts to help startups and SMEs via the Ibuka programme to go public. The NSE rolled out Ibuka in 2018 to help small companies improve investor readiness, formalise governance structures, and tighten financial reporting in preparation for eventual listings.

Ibuka was planned to help small firms raise capital, but uptake has been slow. “While it was well intentioned, it did not see the success it was meant to have,” Kori conceded.

Kori said new regulatory changes have given the exchange more room to experiment, and a tech-focused board is at the top of the agenda. Recent reforms allow the NSE to create sub-boards under its two main segments—the Main Investment Market and the Growth Enterprise Market Segment (GEMS) for SMEs—opening the door to sector-specific platforms.

“That is the icing on the cake,” Kori said. “The regulation allows the NSE to create boards under these two main boards, in particular for very specific sectors.”

In most African bourses, tech startups are mostly grouped with small businesses. Only the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) have clearly branded, junior boards targeting high-growth tech startups. The Egyptian Exchange houses them within the Tamayuz SME market, and the Casablanca Stock Exchange relies on its Elite programme to prepare companies for IPO.

Competing for the region’s tech champions

NSE’s plan comes as African startups mature, and investors begin to look for exit routes beyond trade sales and offshore listings. While Kenya remains one of Africa’s most active technology hubs, its public markets have seen little of that growth.

Despite Nairobi’s reputation as the region’s tech capital, the NSE has few pure technology counters. The exchange has historically been dominated by banks, telecommunications, and consumer goods, including Safaricom, Equity Group, British American Tobacco (BAT), and East African Breweries (EABL).

Kori said the exchange wants to unlock a pipeline of VC- and PE-backed companies that have so far remained in private hands.

“At the Nairobi exchange, we don’t have many tech companies,” he said. “Yet Kenya is still largely considered to be the tech home within the region. That is a sector we’ve been actively looking to unlock.”

Liquidity is not a problem

Nairobi Exchange believes that liquidity is not a problem in the Kenyan market; mobilisation is. Money market funds have been among the best-performing assets in the country over the past two years, buoyed by high interest rates. Assets under management have grown sharply, drawing retail savers seeking yield and safety.

The bourse hopes to redirect some of that capital into higher-risk, higher-growth instruments such as tech stocks riding on the recent launch of Ziidi Trader by Safaricom’s M-Pesa platform—which allows retail investors to buy and sell shares via mobile phones—has raised hopes that a new generation of young, digitally native investors could deepen market participation.