Afrinvestor: Building a stocks trading platform for Africa
Afrinvest West Africa has traditionally placed a premium on technology as a vital element of its competitiveness in the capital markets. Afrinvestor is its online trading and investment management portal, provided by Afrinvest Securities Limited (ASL), a broker dealer and dealing member of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, to empower brokerage clients to take control of their investments, supported by sound investment advice and professional guidance.
The platform gives individual investors and institutional clients access to trade Nigerian stocks and other investment products online, from the comfort of their homes and offices. I led the complete redesign of the web application.
The challenge
For most Nigerians, investing in the capital market is a scattered experience: one broker for stocks, a bank for treasury bills, paper forms for public offerings, and second hand advice from WhatsApp groups holding it all together. Inside the existing product, the same fragmentation showed up as five distinct pain points:
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Products Lived in Silos
Equities, fixed income, and wealth products each behaved like separate apps, with their own balances and flows. Nothing rolled up.
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Trust Stalled the First Trade
Regulatory onboarding (CSCS and CHN activation) confused new investors; many funded a wallet, hit the verification wall, and never placed a trade.
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The Language Excluded Beginners
Yield curves, rights issues, unsettled cash: the interface spoke like a trading desk, not like the first time investors the business wanted to win.
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No Single Source of Truth
Users couldn't answer the most basic question, "how much money do I actually have, and is it growing?", without checking multiple screens.
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Funding Friction
Moving money between the wallet and trading accounts was opaque, and unsettled cash was a constant source of support tickets.
Research & insights
The redesign was grounded in support logs, interviews with retail and institutional clients, and a competitive scan across five categories: local digital brokers (Bamboo, Trove, Chaka), savings first apps (Cowrywise, PiggyVest), global retail platforms (Robinhood, Public), bank investment tabs, and Afrinvest's own advisory workflows. The recurring insight: people don't want more products; they want one coherent picture of their money, and the confidence to act on it.
The solution
One Portfolio Across Every Asset Class
The portfolio view became the product's centre of gravity: a single valuation with an interactive performance chart, and an allocation breakdown spanning wallets, commercial papers, equities, and treasury bills. Filters and a searchable asset table keep the same screen useful for a client with three holdings or three hundred.
Rehearse Before You Commit
For hesitant first timers, we built a portfolio simulation tool: pick holdings, and see projected cost, market value, fees, and net impact before a single naira moves. It reframes investing from a leap of faith into a rehearsal, and it became one of the most used features among new investors.
Guided Discovery, Not a Product Catalogue
The Invest hub organises the full shelf of Nigerian stocks, FGN savings bonds, treasury bills, and commercial papers as plain language cards that lead with what each product does for you, not what it's called on a term sheet. Top gainers and trending stocks give newcomers a starting point instead of a blank search box.
Public Offerings, Without the Paperwork
Public offers and rights issues historically meant branch visits and paper forms. We brought the entire subscription journey into the app, from browsing available offers and reviewing terms to subscribing and tracking allotment, opening a traditionally institutional flow to retail investors.
