The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) is preparing a bold experiment: extending its trading day from the current 9:30 am–2:30 pm to a marathon 9 am–5 pm. The move is pitched as a way to attract more investors, boost liquidity and bring Lagos closer in line with global peers.
Jude Chiemeka, NGX Chief Executive says the ambition is clear: lift daily turnover from about $11m to $100m. “We are trying to internationalise our markets,” he told market operators in a recent briefing. “We think the extension of our trading time is in readiness for all the things that this change is doing that will become evident in the near future.”
The exchange is also betting on new products from Islamic bonds to blue economy securities that it believes will deepen activity. The logic is that a longer clock gives these instruments space to trade and helps Nigeria position itself as an emerging-market hub.
But markets aren’t supermarkets
Keeping the lights on longer doesn’t guarantee more trades. Market makers warn that extended hours can thin out liquidity, widen bid-ask spreads, and heighten volatility. In most markets, trading clusters open and close where price discovery is sharpest while midday often drifts into quiet.
The US illustrates the limits. Wall Street has long offered pre-market and after-hours trading, but the real action still happens between 9:30 am and 4 pm. In Asia, marathon sessions don’t always deliver proportional volumes. In Europe, exchanges exploring longer hours in 2020 ran into pushback from banks and asset managers wary of fatigue and costs.
Even within Nigeria, scepticism exists. Some dealers at the NGX consultation favoured a softer extension, perhaps closing at 3 pm instead of 5 pm, highlighting concerns about stretching resources without boosting volume.
The human cost
Brokers and traders already operate under pressure. Longer hours mean longer risks: fatigue, slower reactions, and more mistakes in a market prone to sharp swings. When Europe debated a similar extension, unions resisted for precisely these reasons.
Beyond the clock
The NGX knows time is only part of the equation. Alongside longer hours, it is preparing reforms that cut deeper: tightening settlement to T+2, where trades are completed two working days after the transaction date, reviewing the 10 percent daily price cap, and shifting to risk-based supervision under the new Investment and Securities Act. These structural changes, not just extra hours, may matter most in winning investor trust.
Ultimately, what convinces capital to stay is not the length of the trading day but the strength of the market’s plumbing: reliable settlement, transparent accounts, regulatory clarity and currency stability. Without these, an extra two-and-a-half hours risks stretching a shallow pool thinner.
Motion vs progress
Around the globe, the debate continues. Wall Street sticks to its six-and-a-half-hour tradition. Johannesburg is flirting with 24-hour trading. Asian markets prove that longer sessions don’t always translate into bigger volumes.
Nigeria’s push is ambitious, and its aim to make Lagos a hub for African capital is not in doubt. But in chasing longer hours, the NGX risks mistaking motion for progress. Sometimes, it’s not how long the market stays open, it’s how well it works when it is.
