Nigeria’s stock market has been ranked the third-largest in Africa by the number of listed companies, according to the OECD Africa Markets Report 2025.
The report shows that Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) hosts 156 listed companies, placing it behind Egypt’s Stock Exchange, which has 245 listings, and South Africa’s Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), with 204 listed companies and a market capitalisation of about 33 billion dollars.
The Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) noted that South Africa remains the continent’s most developed public equity market, accounting for about 60 percent of Africa’s total market capitalisation.
“South Africa has the most developed public equity market, accounting for 60 per cent of the region’s market capitalisation,” the OECD said.
The report added that South Africa’s market capitalisation-to-GDP ratio of 84 percent significantly exceeds that of other African countries and is also higher than the average for emerging markets, which stands at 61 percent.
“At the country level, only a few markets stand out in terms of size and activity,” the OECD said.
It further noted that South Africa also leads in company size, with a median listed company market capitalisation of 195 million dollars, higher than the median for emerging markets and global peers.
Beyond South Africa, the OECD identified Morocco, Egypt, and Nigeria as having relatively large equity markets. Together, the three countries account for about 15 percent of Africa’s total market capitalisation and nearly half of all listed companies on the continent.
Other markets in the top 10 by number of listings include Mauritius with 94 companies, Tunisia with 79, Kenya with 61, Zimbabwe with 60, Côte d’Ivoire with 45, Ghana with 29, and Botswana with 23.
In contrast, the OECD said several African stock exchanges remain small in scale. Markets in Tanzania, Ghana, Botswana, Uganda, Zambia, and Namibia each list between 12 and 29 companies, with market capitalisation ranging from five percent to 20 percent of their respective gross domestic products.
Commenting on the report, the Group Managing Director of Nigerian Exchange Group, Temi Popoola, said the ranking reflects the growing depth, resilience, and responsiveness of Nigeria’s capital market to improving macroeconomic conditions and ongoing structural reforms.
Popoola said the exchange group plans to sustain this momentum by deepening market infrastructure and leveraging partnerships and technology to position Nigeria’s capital market as a leading destination for long-term investment in Africa.