The Nairobi Securities Exchange had a remarkable run in 2025—total investor wealth rose by nearly KSh 1 trillion across the year, with Safaricom alone breaching a KSh 1.1 trillion market cap. Thirteen listed companies posted share price gains of over 100%. And yet, despite all of this, most Kenyans still watch from the sidelines, convinced that the stock market is for rich people or financial professionals.
It isn’t. In 2026, you can buy shares on the NSE through your phone, starting with as little as KSh 1,000, in a process that takes less than a week to set up. Here’s exactly how to do it.
Step One: Open an Account With a Licensed Stockbroker
To buy shares on the NSE, you need to go through a licensed stockbroker or investment bank that is a member of the exchange. The Capital Markets Authority maintains a public list of all licensed brokers on its website—always verify before proceeding. Some popular and accessible options include AIB-AXYS Africa, Kingdom Securities, Faida Investment Bank, and SBG Securities. Many of these now have mobile apps and online portals that make the process entirely digital.
When opening your account, you’ll need your national ID, your KRA PIN certificate, and a passport photo. The process has been significantly streamlined in recent years, and many brokers can complete the onboarding within two to three business days.
Step Two: Open a CDS Account
A Central Depository System (CDS) account is where your shares are held electronically. Think of it as a digital safe for your share certificates. Your stockbroker will help you open this as part of the account-opening process — you don’t need to do it separately. Once your CDS account is active, any shares you buy will reflect there, and you can check your portfolio balance at any time.
Step Three: Fund Your Account and Research Before Buying
Deposit money into your brokerage account via bank transfer or M-Pesa (most modern brokers now support Safaricom’s Ziidi Trader platform, which links M-Pesa directly to NSE trading). Before you buy your first share, take time to research the companies you’re interested in. Look at their recent financial results, dividend history, and how the stock has performed over the past year. For beginners, blue-chip companies with consistent earnings and dividend histories — like Equity Group, KCB, Co-operative Bank, Safaricom, and EABL — offer a less volatile entry point than smaller, speculative counters.
How to Think About Stock Investing in Kenya
The single most important mindset shift for new investors is understanding that you are not gambling—you are buying a small ownership stake in a real business. When that business makes money, so do you, either through dividends (cash paid to shareholders from profits) or through the rising value of your shares. The NSE rewards patient, consistent investors far more reliably than it rewards people trying to time the market or chase quick gains.
A sensible approach for beginners is to start with one or two well-known companies, invest a fixed amount monthly regardless of whether the price is up or down, and commit to holding for at least three to five years. This strategy, known as systematic investing, is how most ordinary investors build genuinely meaningful wealth in equities over time.
What Are the Costs Involved?
When you buy or sell shares on the NSE, you’ll pay brokerage commissions of around 1.8 to 2.1% of the transaction value, plus a small CDS fee and stamp duty. These costs are factored into the price you see when your trade is executed. They are reasonable by regional standards and don’t significantly impact long-term returns for investors who aren’t trading frequently.
The NSE’s decision in recent years to allow trading of single-unit shares — meaning you can buy just one share of a company — has completely removed the barrier of needing large amounts of capital to get started. The only thing stopping you at this point is inaction. And inaction, in investing, has a very real and compounding cost.
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