Kenya is quickly evolving from a primarily agrarian and providers financial system into one in all Africa’s most dynamic digital and monetary hubs. Over the past couple of years, and accelerating into 2026, world buying and selling platforms have been increasing their footprint there. Right here, foreign exchange, digital property, capital markets and broader commerce ecosystems have discovered a market that after was not.
The enlargement is pushed by a mix of regulatory progress and know-how adoption. The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has stepped up licensing of worldwide brokers, whereas Kenya’s world-leading cellular cash ecosystem has lowered obstacles to entry for retail merchants.
Due to this, participation in on-line buying and selling has surged. That is very true for the youthful, digital-savvy buyers who entry world markets by their smartphones. Proper now, buying and selling with platforms like Exness Kenya has turn out to be a standard prevalence all through the nation. And up to date developments recommend that this momentum is accelerating much more.
Capital Markets Authority licensing making it attainable
The Capital Market Authority has been proactive in licensing each native and worldwide buying and selling platforms. The CMA has been making a authorized basis for world corporations to function transparently within the nation.
For instance, in January 2026, the CMA granted licences to a preferred worldwide fintech buying and selling platform, enabling it to function as a regulated on-line foreign exchange dealer in Kenya. The buying and selling platform can now act as a compliant counterparty and supply onboarding, execution and buyer assist based on the regulation by the CMA. Moreover, the worldwide dealer appointed Samwel Kiraka as CEO, Kenya, to steer its operations within the nation.
As of 2026, the CMA has given at the very least 14 licenses to on-line buying and selling brokerage corporations. Earlier than the Capital Markets (On-line Overseas Trade Buying and selling) rules in 2017, the foreign exchange market in Kenya was just like the Wild West. You’d hear tales of individuals turning into millionaires in a single day, clashing with these of merchants shedding all their life financial savings to scammers who then disappeared into digital darkness. Nonetheless, rules have given Kenyan merchants extra confidence, even with worldwide brokerage corporations.
The regulatory readability has opened new participation from merchants everywhere in the nation. Trade knowledge reveals that since rules began taking motion, buying and selling volumes within the regulated market have gone up by greater than 80%. And thus far, the variety of lively retail on-line merchants has already surpassed 100,000, making Kenya among the many largest foreign exchange markets in Africa.
Cell fintech integration decreasing obstacles to buying and selling
Considered one of Kenya’s aggressive benefits is its cellular funds ecosystem. Headlined by Safaricom’s M-Pesa, the telecom supplier has over 37 million month-to-month lively customers and recorded over $157 billion in transactions inside six months resulting in September 2025.
World buying and selling platforms have been strategically integrating with these programs in a bid to achieve Kenyan shoppers instantly. In truth, Safaricom has its personal initiative (Ziidi Dealer), which permits inventory buying and selling instantly by way of M-Pesa. This bridges telecom, fintech and capital markets and emphasises how world‑fashion buying and selling providers (historically solely by way of brokers) can attain mass audiences.
Simply in January 2026, the Nairobi Securities Trade (NSE) stated that it was betting on cellular cash platforms to draw extra retail buyers. The NSE stated that it was anticipating the main telecom corporations to start out rolling out buying and selling providers on cellular cash apps with a purpose to widen entry to capital markets.
In an interview with Semafor, Andrew Barden, chief government of Wall Avenue Africa Group, acknowledged that latching onto cellular cash providers like M-Pesa would assist scale back the time it took to onboard new buyers by leveraging their already present particulars.
In the identical approach, worldwide brokers working on Kenyan soil now settle for M-Pesa and different cellular wallets like Airtel Cash and T-Kash for deposits. This has dramatically lowered friction for retail merchants in comparison with the previous reliance on expensive worldwide wire transfers. That rise in accessibility has helped retail participation develop alongside the enlargement of worldwide platforms.
Training and market infrastructure are catching up
World platforms have additionally been investing in training and native ecosystems. As world buying and selling platforms scale up their operations, training and market infrastructure are more and more being labored on. You see, business estimates point out that over 60% of latest retail merchants in Kenya are underneath the age of 35. Nonetheless, a superb portion of those merchants are available with restricted prior publicity to formal investing. Subsequently, licensed platforms are being pushed to speculate extra closely in structured studying instruments.
For instance, occasions just like the Africa Foreign exchange Buying and selling Expo 2026 have been put as much as demystify buying and selling and supply mandatory abilities. In keeping with Azelia Expo Ltd, the foreign currency trading expo is geared toward bringing collectively foreign exchange merchants, fintech innovators, brokers, Cost Service Suppliers (PSPs), crypto exchanges and monetary educators from everywhere in the world. Azelia acknowledged that the two-day expo was coming at a important time when Kenya’s foreign currency trading market is rising at an unprecedented charge.
Moreover, completely different world buying and selling platforms run monetary literacy initiatives and native coaching. These reinforce information alongside platform entry. These efforts assist construct market sophistication, which is helpful to each merchants and buying and selling platforms.
The fast development of on-line buying and selling in Kenya displays a deep shift within the nation’s monetary and digital financial system. What started as rising retail curiosity has moved and now’s a structured market formed by licensing, cellular integration and growing institutional consideration. As extra worldwide brokers proceed to arrange domestically, Kenya is shifting from the hidden elements of worldwide buying and selling to a recognised regional hub.
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