Cowrywise Reports More Than 1 Million Stock Trades as It Adds Curated Picks

Nigerian investment fintech Cowrywise says it has processed more than 1 million stock trades, one year after introducing its Stocks product.

The company is also launching a curated stocks feature that will allow users to select from a group of companies supported by analyst research. The selections will carry ratings of “buy,” “sell” or “hold,” according to a report by TechCabal.

From access to investment decisions

The new feature moves Cowrywise beyond simply providing access to equities and closer to helping users decide what to invest in. The company’s Stocks product allows retail investors to trade shares on the Nigerian Exchange, while Cowrywise earns revenue through brokerage commissions on trades it processes.

Yarmirama Ashama, Cowrywise’s associate vice president of product, said the company had seen changing attitudes toward investing among younger Nigerians.

“We have been observing a gradual shift in how younger Nigerians think about investing. There is increasing interest in participating directly in the growth of Nigerian businesses, but historically, accessing the stock market felt complicated for a first-time investor,” Ashama said.

She added that Cowrywise’s approach was focused on making stock-market access easier to understand and use. “Our view was that the opportunity wasn’t simply to give people access to stocks, but to make that access significantly simpler and more intuitive,” she said.

Retail participation expands

Cowrywise said the average age of its retail stock investors is 28. The milestone comes as local participation in Nigeria’s equity market has grown. Local investors traded ₦4.53 trillion ($3.42 billion) worth of equities on the NGX during the first eight months of 2026, compared with ₦2.33 trillion ($1.76 billion) over the same period a year earlier.

The NGX All-Share Index had gained 56.93% by the end of August 2026. The ongoing Dangote Refinery public offer, valued at ₦2.15 trillion ($1.6 billion), allows investors to subscribe with as little as ₦5,250 ($3.96).

Ashama said Cowrywise had observed higher activity around major market and corporate events, including earnings announcements, dividend declarations, corporate actions, broader market movements and public offers.

“We have observed periods of increased activity around major corporate and market events like the extension of trading hours, including significant earnings announcements, dividend declarations, corporate actions, broader market movements, and public offers, just like the ongoing IPO event by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery,” she said.

Competition among digital investment platforms

Cowrywise, founded in 2017, initially focused on savings, mutual funds and managed investments before adding self-directed stock trading. Its expansion comes as digital investment platforms compete to attract retail investors through easier access, simpler trading and support with investment decisions.

Bamboo, another investment platform, said it processed 542,582 NGX trades in April and surpassed stockbrokers including CardinalStone to become the exchange’s largest broker by weighted market share. Bamboo launched access to NGX stocks in 2024 and introduced its Managed Portfolio product in 2025, allowing customers to invest in a curated portfolio of US stocks with a minimum investment of $100.

Cowrywise has not disclosed the exact number of companies to be included in its curated feature or the identities of the analysts supporting the ratings.