Africa’s forex trading Stats Revealed ( 2020 )
2020 has been a challenging year in all aspects in Africa, especially on the economic front but a 100% plus growth for some regulated brokers will definitely grab the forex trading community’s attention.
Forex trading has, despite sweeping global challenges, increased and strengthened for a variety of reasons.
Due to lockdowns on a global front as result of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent attempts to curb the spread, a lot more people were confined to their homes to work remotely whereas others were left without employment, seeking alternative ways to secure an income.
Improved telecommunication across the continent and increased access to the Internet all over Africa brought in massive numbers of new forex traders who signed up to trade on the established electronic trading platforms.
Other reasons include the high liquidity that the forex market offers in addition to lowered transactional costs, making it possible for anyone to trade forex especially through mobile trading.
Newly released statistics
Africa’s economy as a whole is growing substantially and quickly, despite many challenges the continent faces. Africa remains one of the most lucrative destinations for foreign investment and there are many international companies which have established themselves across the continent, says Louis Schoeman from Forexsuggest.com – a global forex analysis platform based in Africa who conducted the survey.
Many notable forex brokers have already witnessed a trading market ripe and ready to be penetrated and featuring near-endless possibilities for traders ranging from beginners, intermediaries and expert traders.
There are numerous major forex brokers that have obtained the necessary regulation from a top-tier authority to offer their services to African forex traders. In South Africa, this is the Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA).
The following regulated forex brokers supplied us their up-to-date averages (29 December 2020).
““We saw substantial growth of around 100% in trade volume and significantly more than this in our number of active clients in the African Region” – Paul Margarites, Sub-Saharan Director of Exness “On average, we grew 35% in the African market for 2020” – Christodoulos Avraamides, Head of Affiliates, African Division at XM.com
“Across all South Africa and all channels, the percentage growth in NACS from 2019 to 2020 was 18.3%. In all of Africa’s continent, it’s 20.2%” – Elena Lautinka, Head of Africa Affiliates at AvaTrade
“We saw a steady increase of around 22% on clients” – Ayrin Nifanov, Head of African Growth at CM Trading
“Number of volume: Tickmill saw a 27.43% increase in Africa alone” – Christoforos Panagiotou Africa Regional Manager of Tickmill
Retail forex trading in Africa may only represent a small segment of the global currency markets – approximately 5.5 percent – but the continent is showing substantial growth, especially in South Africa which accounts for the greatest forex trading volume in Africa.
In February, March and April 2020, the South African Rand as well as other African currencies experienced weakened price levels against emerging and developed market currencies. However, during July, African currencies showed increased strength followed by weakened conditions again during August.
A record number of Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA) licenses were applied for by European and Asian Forex Brokers in 2020.
Despite volatile trading conditions, October and November proved to be substantially fruitful months for African currencies and the positions held in the global forex market.
The main driver of growth in South Africa appears to be that other jurisdictions, such as Europe, have tightened regulations. This makes Africa and various Asian countries an attractive proposition for regulated retail brokers, particularly those originating from Europe.