How buying shares on the NGX works

This is the process, not a suggestion to buy

People ask how a share on the NGX is bought. The steps below describe the market’s ordinary account process. They are not a suggestion to buy any share, and they are not a list of preferred brokers. Gopexly is not a broker and does not give investment advice. For education only.

A licensed broker and a CSCS account

Trades in listed shares go through a stockbroker licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria. The broker opens the relationship, explains its own fees, and submits orders to the market. You can confirm a firm’s status with the Commission rather than relying on an advert.

Holdings of listed shares are recorded in the Central Securities Clearing System, usually called CSCS. A CSCS account is the record of what you hold. It is separate from a normal bank account. The broker typically helps open or link that account, together with a bank account for payments. Forms, identity documents, and a signature are part of that setup. Each firm’s checklist differs, so read the one they give you.

Funding and the order

Before an order, you fund the broker’s accepted bank details. The cash is for the share purchase and for charges the broker and the market disclose, such as brokerage and statutory fees. Ask the broker for the full charge schedule before you send money.

An order names the ticker, the quantity, and the type of instruction, such as a price limit or an instruction to trade at the available market price. The broker enters it. A trade is complete only when it matches under the exchange’s rules and settles into the CSCS account. Settlement follows the cycle the NGX publishes. Until then, a filled order is not the same thing as cash back in your bank.

Selling is the same path in reverse: an order through the broker, a match on the market, and cash credited after settlement, minus charges. Nothing on Gopexly sends that order.