Bamboo Says Nigeria Needs More Large IPOs Within 2 Years

In Short

• The Dangote Refinery IPO exposed strong demand from Nigerian retail investors.
• Bamboo CEO Richmond Bassey says Nigeria needs more large IPOs to keep new investors engaged.
• The IPO also highlighted weak capacity across digital investing platforms, including customer support and backend systems.

What Happened

Bamboo CEO Richmond Bassey says Nigeria needs more large IPOs to meet rising retail investor demand, after the Dangote Refinery IPO drew heavy interest and strained online subscription channels.

An IPO, short for initial public offering, is when a company sells shares to the public for the first time. In this case, demand was visible almost immediately. Bassey said that within 30 minutes of the offer opening on September 14, traffic levels were already testing the platforms handling subscriptions.

Bamboo was one of the platforms affected, with downtime as user activity exceeded what its systems were prepared to handle. Bassey argued that the ecosystem needs repeated IPOs of this scale so brokers, fintech apps, registrars, and their service providers can justify upgrading infrastructure, internal processes, and customer support.

He said Bamboo had to expand customer support quickly as its community surged 5,300% from 2024 to the end of 2025. The company increased its support team from 11 to 68 people, and said it brought response times down to about one minute.

Bassey also shared a key signal from the IPO wave, more than 43% of new users who signed up and subscribed were first-time investors.

Why It Matters

The Dangote Refinery IPO may have done more than sell shares, it functioned like a market-wide stress test for Nigeria’s retail investing stack. When platforms struggle under peak demand, investors can lose trust and abandon the market.

Bassey’s call for another major listing within 24 months is about momentum. Big, well-known “blue chip” names tend to attract first-time investors, and he said Bamboo users often concentrate even small amounts, like $50, into large companies rather than speculative penny stocks.

For Nigerian capital markets, the message is clear. Retail appetite exists, but keeping it requires reliable digital distribution, fast support, and a steady pipeline of credible listings.