Trading at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has entered a new phase after the rollout of Safaricom’s Ziidi Trader pushed daily equity deals above 20,000 for three consecutive sessions, breaking long-standing records.
- •Daily deal counts, which had typically ranged between 4,000 and 7,800 from October through January, jumped to 8,713 on the first day of the pilot, rose to 12,893 on 6 February, and reached 14,300 by 9 February.
- •Activity then accelerated sharply, with trades settling at a record 25,773 on 11 February, followed by 24,357 on 12 February and 23,608 on 13 February.
- •The three-day run above 20,000 trades is unprecedented at the NSE.
Ziidi’s footprint explains much of the surge in transaction counts. On Friday, 13 February, the platform executed 13,990 trades out of the market total of 23,608, accounting for about 59% of all equity deals. Its contribution to value, however, was far smaller. Ziidi generated KSh 48.5 million in turnover on the day, roughly 4% of the NSE’s KSh 1.23 billion equity turnover, pointing to a retail-led flow dominated by small trade sizes as new investors test the market.
Crucially, the rise in deal counts has not undermined liquidity. Equity turnover has remained elevated, exceeding KSh 1 billion for four consecutive sessions between 10 and 13 February, the first such streak since early September 2025.
Turnover stood at KSh 1.29 billion on 5 February, KSh 572 million on 9 February, then climbed to KSh 2.44 billion on 10 February, KSh 1.83 billion on 11 February, and KSh 1.13 billion on 12 February. Traditional brokers continue to account for the bulk of turnover, even as Ziidi dominates deal volumes, underscoring a split between retail participation and institutional capital.
Week-on-week indicators confirm the scale of the shift. Equity volumes rose by about 81%, while equity turnover increased by 54%. Bond market turnover climbed nearly 30%, and activity on the NEXT Derivatives Market surged, with contracts traded up 144% and derivatives turnover up 185% from the prior week.
Foreign investors remained net sellers over the week, recording a net equity outflow of KSh 595 million, though this marked a significant improvement from the KSh 1.06 billion outflow seen the previous week. NSE officials say the jump in local participation is encouraging and expect activity to push to even higher levels as more first-time investors come on board.
Ziidi’s structure underpins the shift and by embedding share trading within the M-Pesa app, the platform removes paperwork and the need for individual CDS accounts while preserving dividend and voting rights through an omnibus custody arrangement operated by Safaricom and Kestrel capital.
A comparison of trading costs shows Ziidi is cheaper than traditional brokers such as AIB Axys across small and large trades, with a fee gap of about 0.34 percentage points driven mainly by lower brokerage charges. At the platform’s launch, President William Ruto urged the NSE, the Capital Markets Authority, and market intermediaries to lower trading costs to make investing more accessible.
| Metric | KSh 100 | KSh 1,000 | KSh 100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ziidi Trader total fees (KSh) | 3.48 • broker ▸ 1.14% • levies ▸ 2.34% | 16.80 • broker ▸ 1.14% • levies ▸ 0.54% | 1,500.00 • broker ▸ 1.14% • levies ▸ 0.36% |
| AIB Axys total fees (KSh) | 3.82 • broker ▸ 1.30% • levies ▸ 2.52% | 20.22 • broker ▸ 1.30% • levies ▸ 0.72% | 1,842.00 • broker ▸ 1.30% • levies ▸ 0.54% |
| Ziidi net cost (KSh) | 103.48 | 1,016.80 | 101,500.00 |
| AIB Axys net cost (KSh) | 103.82 | 1,020.22 | 101,842.00 |
| Ziidi cheaper by (KSh) | 0.34 | 3.42 | 342.00 |
| Fee gap (pp) | 0.34 | 0.34 | 0.34 |
