A market can exist on paper long before anyone uses it. Ethiopia’s new securities exchange faces exactly that gap between institution and adoption: the venue now exists, but the customer who buys a share, opens a brokerage account or trusts a settlement system does not yet exist at scale. On 10 January 2025, Ethiopia launched a securities exchange as a central institution in its effort to mobilise domestic capital, list enterprises and widen private investment. Seen from the customer’s side of the counter, the story is about whether ordinary savers and firms will actually adopt what has been built.

The Product: What the customer is being offered

Start with the offer. The exchange gives savers a new place to hold their money — equity in listed enterprises — and gives firms a new way to reach those savers directly. Prospective state-enterprise flotations are the first products on the shelf, and the surrounding brokerage, custody and disclosure functions are the service layer that makes buying and holding a share possible.

For a customer, adoption depends on friction and trust. Opening an account, funding it, executing a trade and being sure the shares are safely held are the moments where a new market is won or lost. Ethiopia’s launch, reported as a fresh step to liberalise the economy, only becomes real when those moments work smoothly for a first-time investor.

The takeaway: the product is a share, but the service around it decides adoption.

The Access Problem: Pricing, reach and the first-time investor

The central customer tension is plain: will people receive lower costs, better access and reliable service, or merely new promises. A securities market solves a real problem — savers have had few formal ways to own a stake in productive enterprise, and firms have had few ways to raise equity from the public. But solving it depends on access.

Access has several dimensions. Brokerage fees and account minimums determine who can afford to participate. Physical and digital reach determine whether the market extends beyond Addis Ababa’s institutional core. Investor education — a stated need alongside the infrastructure — determines whether first-time buyers understand what they are holding. Each of these is a measurable adoption lever, and each will show early whether the market is broadening or staying narrow.

The takeaway: adoption is priced in fees, reach and financial literacy, not announcements.

The Trust Layer: Custody, disclosure and confidence

No one adopts a market they do not trust with their money. That is why custody and disclosure are customer features, not back-office details. Custody assures a saver that the shares they bought are genuinely theirs and safely settled. Disclosure assures them that the price reflects real information rather than rumour. Together they build the confidence without which retail participation stalls.

For firms, the trust layer works the other way: credible disclosure is what lets them own a direct relationship with investors rather than borrowing through intermediaries. The businesses that master transparent reporting are best placed to attract and keep this new class of shareholder. Confidence, once earned, is the asset that compounds.

The takeaway: custody and disclosure are the trust that makes customers stay.

The Regional Customer: A wider pool over time

The exchange adds a major new market to East Africa’s capital-market map and creates future cross-border investment possibilities. Over time, the customer base could extend beyond Ethiopia’s borders to regional investors seeking exposure to a large economy. That widening is forward-dated and depends on convertibility and custody links still being built, but it points to a larger addressable market than the domestic one alone.

The takeaway: today’s customer is local; tomorrow’s pool could be regional.

So what should an operator take from this. Treat the launch as the opening of a market that still has to win its customers. The metrics that matter are adoption metrics — accounts opened, the spread of brokerage access beyond the capital, the affordability of participation and the reach of investor education. For any firm considering the board, the lesson is that the exchange rewards those who can build trust and own the investor relationship directly. The venue is built. Whether customers walk in is the number to watch.