Grace Ashiru
Bamboo, one of the best online brokerages in Nigeria, has expanded into Ghana. This makes it the first west-African brokerage app that works in more than one country.
Through a partnership with a licensed Ghanaian company, 10th Capital Investments, the more than 50,000 people on Bamboo Ghana’s waiting list can now buy and invest in stocks from US companies like Apple Inc and Tesla.
When Bamboo completed its series A fundraising in January, the company’s CEO said that the company would be focusing its next frontier on the Ghanaian market. After another $17.4 million was raised and nine months passed, the plans for Ghana have finally come to fruition. Bamboo said in a statement that it recently received a No Objection Letter from Ghana’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to operate in the country, which paves the way for it to launch successfully. This statement was shared with TechCabal.
We strongly believe that every African should get a return on their investments and generate wealth that will be passed down for generations. That is why we established Bamboo; we wanted to provide a straightforward and risk-free method for average Africans to participate in the stock market in the United States.” and ultimately, in all kinds of asset classes,” said Richmond Bassey, the CEO and co-founder of Bamboo.
Since its inception in 2019, Bamboo and other retail investment apps like Chaka, Trove, and Rise that provide access to overseas assets have been forced to contend with stringent regulatory constraints in their home country of Nigeria. The Nigerian central bank then said Bamboo didn’t have a license and froze its bank accounts for a while.
In April of last year, Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) told operators in the capital market to stop doing business with these kinds of companies because they were illegal.
Even though there have been problems, Bamboo has stuck to its plan to work “very closely with regulators in Nigeria” to make sure that everyone is happy. Now that it is in Ghana, Bamboo has agreed to regularly work with the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to create a standard regulatory framework for the retail investment industry it is starting.
Through DriveWealth LLC, Bamboo’s US digital investing partner, the Nigerian company assures users that the US Securities Investor Protection Corporation covers all accounts for up to $500,000. (SIPC). Bamboo is ready to make retail investment common in Ghana now that rules and insurance are in place.
Albert Asiamah, the Chief Operating Officer of 10th Capital Investments, was quite enthusiastic about the success of Bamboo’s product in Nigeria. He described the investment as excellent and advantageous.
We couldn’t be more excited to collaborate with [the Bamboo team] to give Ghanaians the chance to participate in the United States and, eventually, their own country’s stock market.
“We’re excited to work with [the Bamboo team] to give Ghanaians the chance to invest in the US stock market and, eventually, their own. “They are a great partner because they have an excellent track record in Nigeria and make great products and educational tools,” he said.
We’ve been able to give investors from all around Africa more affordable access to the markets in the United States because of our partnership with Bamboo.
Today, we’re happy to give the people of Ghana the same access,” said John Shammas, who is in charge of technical sales at DriveWealth.
“As we continue to expand worldwide, one of our goals is to provide an increasing number of clients with the resources they require to enhance their financial situation and participate in the market,” he explained.
