When Dangote Refinery opened its share offer in September, Nigerians could buy in for as little as ₦5,250, roughly $3.96 for ten units, through banks and digital investment apps. Investors sitting in Nairobi or Gaborone had almost no path in. The $1.6 billion offer was registered only in Nigeria, and cross-border buyers faced a wall of local securities rules and thin distribution options. That gap, it turns out, is exactly where Roqqu is planting its flag.
The Nigerian-founded crypto exchange wants to put local equities onto blockchain networks and make them accessible to eligible investors outside Nigeria. Roqqu already offers its users tokenised US stocks through Ondo Finance, a US company that issues blockchain tokens linked to publicly traded shares. Now it wants to run the same idea in reverse: take Nigerian stocks, wrap them in tokens, and send them outward to the continent.
Emmanuel Peter, Roqqu's head of trading and markets, frames the company as a distribution layer, not a rival to the Nigerian Exchange. The proposed structure would have existing brokers buy shares on the NGX, authorised custodians hold them through the Central Securities Clearing System, and Roqqu provide the infrastructure to issue matching blockchain tokens. Other crypto exchanges could eventually distribute those same tokens, stretching reach well beyond Roqqu's own user base.
Roimot Ibitoye, the company's chief compliance officer, says each token would be backed by shares held in custody, with regular checks to prevent over-issuance. Roqqu also intends to pass through dividends, stock splits, and other shareholder benefits. The company says it is in conversations with regulators, brokers, custodians, and fund managers, though it has not named any institutional partners or confirmed which Nigerian stocks it plans to tokenise first.
Roqqu's executives expect Nigerian tokenised securities to be available before 2027. The regulatory status of the product is still unclear, and key questions around connecting token holdings to enforceable shareholder interests and handling redemptions remain unanswered publicly. Whether the infrastructure catches up to the ambition is the part worth watching.
Originally published by TechCabal.