The Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX) today unveiled Neway, the country’s first dedicated mobile trading platform, in a move designed to accelerate retail investor participation in one of Africa’s newest and most tightly watched capital markets.
Named after the Amharic word for “asset” or “wealth” (ንዋይ), Neway enables users to open brokerage accounts remotely, view real-time market data, place buy and sell orders, execute trades, and monitor portfolios all from smartphones or web browsers.
The app integrates directly with the exchange’s order management and broker back-office systems, offering a seamless, regulator-approved onboarding journey that bypasses the traditional need to visit Addis Ababa-based brokerage offices.
The launch comes roughly eight months after the ESX commenced full trading operations in July 2025, following its ceremonial opening by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in January 2025. Initially focused on secondary trading of government treasury bills and a small number of bank equities, including Wegagen Bank and Gadaa Bank, the exchange is backed by Ethiopian Investment Holdings, the Ministry of Finance, the Ethiopian Capital Market Authority, and international development partners such as FSD Africa.
Despite the symbolic importance of Africa’s second-most populous nation establishing a modern securities exchange, uptake has remained modest.
Active investor accounts hover between roughly 2,500 and 3,200, well below the exchange’s medium-term target of 30,000, while cumulative trading turnover in the early months has stayed in the low tens of millions of birr (equivalent to roughly $100,000–150,000 at current exchange rates).
Limited listings, concentrated broker infrastructure in the capital, low financial literacy, and nascent market awareness have all constrained broader retail engagement.
Neway, developed in partnership with Infotech Private Limited and funded through a collective $500,000 investment by the ESX’s ten licensed brokerage members, directly tackles these structural barriers. By enabling remote account registration and on-the-go trading, the platform aims to bring the exchange to Ethiopia’s growing smartphone-owning middle class and diaspora investors.
“Today marks a crucial chapter in our ambition to build a globally standardised, inclusive securities market,” said ESX CEO Tilahun E. Kassahun at the launch event. Ethiopian Investment Holdings CEO and ESX Board Chairperson Brook Taye described the app as “a great achievement for the transformation of the sector,” while Capital Market Authority Director-General Hana Tehelku emphasised its role in fostering a more participatory and inclusive ecosystem.
For international investors and observers, the rollout underscores Ethiopia’s broader economic liberalisation agenda: shifting from a historically state-led model toward deeper private-sector financing channels, improved corporate governance standards, and greater capital-market liquidity.
While the exchange still operates with a very narrow product set and modest daily volumes, Neway represents an important infrastructure build-out that could prove catalytic once more companies particularly from banking, telecom, and consumer sectors complete listings.
Available now on iOS and Android app stores, Neway arrives at a pivotal moment for Ethiopia’s young bourse. Whether it can meaningfully expand the investor base and help catalyse a virtuous cycle of listings, liquidity, and price discovery will be one of the defining tests for the exchange over the next 12–24 months.
