West Africa’s regional stock exchange made its case to global investors in New York this week, as the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM) brought its Investment Days roadshow to Nasdaq MarketSite on 21 April. The event marked the latest stop in a series of international engagements that have included Paris, London, South Africa and previous editions in New York, with this edition placing a stronger emphasis on performance.
The event drew a full room, with strong attendance from institutional investors, market participants, and diaspora stakeholders, and featured wide-ranging, engaging discussions.
Based in Abidjan, the BRVM operates as a single exchange serving eight West African economies — Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. It remains one of the few exchanges globally to function as a fully integrated regional market, offering investors exposure to multiple economies through a unified currency and regulatory framework.
That structure is now delivering clearer results. In 2025, the BRVM’s main index rose by more than 25%, extending a five-year run in which the market nearly doubled in value, with cumulative growth of just over 99% since 2021. The gains have come despite a difficult global backdrop, underlining the market’s resilience.
Market depth has expanded alongside performance. Total market capitalisation reached approximately CFA 24,781 billion (around $40 billion) by the end of 2025 — equivalent to more than 18% of the region’s GDP. Trading volumes more than doubled in 2025, rising by 109% year-on-year, signalling improving liquidity.
“We are seeing sustained growth across all major indicators,” said BRVM CEO Edoh Kossi Amenounvé. “This reflects not only the resilience of our market, but also its increasing attractiveness and its structuring role within the WAEMU economies.”
The New York roadshow was part of a broader push to position the BRVM within global capital flows, bringing it directly in front of institutional investors at a time when frontier markets are regaining attention.
For some market participants, however, that diversification argument is already compelling. Boum III Jr, CEO and Co-Founder of Daba Finance, described the BRVM as “one of the best-kept secrets in global investing,” citing its strong returns and low correlation with major global markets. In an environment shaped by volatility in the US and Europe, he argued, the exchange offers investors “something they can’t find anywhere else.”
Yet visibility and access remain constraints. According to Boum, limited investment infrastructure continues to slow capital inflows. “Most international investors haven’t heard of the BRVM. Those who have lack the research tools to analyse opportunities, seamless onboarding to get started, and regulated pathways to invest with confidence,” he said.
“The diaspora sends around $100 billion home every year, and almost all of it is spent, not invested. The appetite is already there. Diaspora investors are actively looking for credible, accessible ways to own a stake in Africa’s growth. They just need the right infrastructure and the right narrative,” Boum said.
Meanwhile, the exchange continues to strengthen its domestic base. Priorities include expanding listings, improving liquidity and introducing new instruments such as sustainable bonds, alongside efforts to enhance access through digital platforms and cross-border trading initiatives.
For investors, the case rests on both access and returns. The BRVM has delivered equity returns of over 8% in recent periods, with bond yields around 6%, offering competitive performance within a relatively stable monetary environment.
“The BRVM represents a growing opportunity to gain exposure to the economic momentum of WAEMU,” Amenounvé said.
As the exchange concluded its New York engagement, the message was clear: the BRVM is no longer an overlooked frontier market, but a performance-driven exchange. The question now is how quickly global capital moves to capture the opportunity.
