Licensed by the local regulator
0Authorised by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This is the only status that brings local investor protection.
- None of the brokers in this ranking.
Legal · Nigeria · 2026
Who licenses these brokers, and who does not
No broker in this ranking holds a licence from the Securities and Exchange Commission. It licenses the brokers of the local exchanges and treats offshore forex and fixed-time platforms as unauthorised. It has publicly named Quotex among platforms operating without authorisation. A different regulator, in Vanuatu, lists BinaryCent in a notice stating it never licensed the broker. The rest hold a foreign licence or none at all, so local investor protection does not cover your account with any of them.
§ 1 · Licence status
Who is licensed
Foreign licence or registration
6Registered with a regulator or a dispute body outside this country. What that is worth depends on the body — and on which of the broker's companies holds your account.
- DerivMFSA 70156
- Pocket OptionMISA (Mwali) T2022086
- IQ OptionCySEC 247/14 (EEA)
- Olymp TradeVFSC company No. 40131 (Aollikus Limited)
- BinomoIFC (FinaCom) Category A
- Expert OptionFinancial Commission (member)
Nothing found, or a warning
3No register entry matched the broker's name. Some have been named publicly by a regulator.
- QuotexNamed as unauthorised
- ExnovaNo licence found
- BinaryCentNamed in a fraud notice
§ 2 · Register
Licences of 9 ranked brokers
No.
Broker
Regulator
Jurisdiction
Check status
03
MISA (Mwali) T2022086
Mwali (Comoros)
Offshore licence · warnings
Light-touch register, and other regulators have warned
05
CySEC 247/14 (EEA)
Cyprus (EEA only)
Confirmed, limited scope
The licensed company does not serve this country
06
VFSC company No. 40131 (Aollikus Limited)
Vanuatu
Confirmed in the register
Entry found, name and number match
07
IFC (FinaCom) Category A
International
Dispute body, not a regulator
Membership of a complaints scheme, not supervision
08
Financial Commission (member)
International
Dispute body, not a regulator
Membership of a complaints scheme, not supervision
10
None found
—
Named in a fraud notice
The regulator states it never licensed this broker
The register covers the brokers we assess; our partner is shown beside it, labelled, and is not ranked against them. We publish no licence year: the registers we used do not state one for every entry, and a date we cannot source is not a fact.
§ 3 · Consequences
What it means
01
Protection of funds
Nigeria investor-protection rules do not apply to an offshore broker. Any compensation depends on the foreign body named on the licence — and on which of the broker's companies holds your account.
02
Resolving disputes
A complaint goes to the broker first, then to whoever is named on the licence. The Securities and Exchange Commission cannot rule on a broker it has never licensed.
03
Country restrictions
Several foreign regulators forbid the company they license from serving clients here. The company on your account agreement is the one that matters, not the brand on the app.
04
Taxes
Profits may be taxable where you live whatever the broker's licence says. Keep your statements; we do not give tax advice.
§ 4 · Method
Verification
What counts as confirmation
An active entry in the regulator's own register where the company name and the number both match what the broker shows clients. A logo, a certificate picture or a membership badge on the broker's site does not count.
- 1
Record what the broker claims
The legal entity, regulator and number shown in the broker's own footer, terms and account agreement.
- 2
Search the regulator's register
That entity is looked up in the regulator's public register directly, never through a link the broker supplies.
- 3
Match name, number and status
The entry must be active and both name and number must match. A partial match is published as “no licence found”, not as a licence.
- 4
Look for public warnings
We search the local regulator's press releases for the brand and its domains. That is how the warning in this register got here.
- 5
Date every line
Each result carries the date it was checked, and the whole register is re-read monthly.
Common questions
Trading shares and commodity futures through a locally licensed broker on the local exchanges is legal and supervised. The regulator has licensed no offshore platform to offer forex or fixed-time trading to the public here, and describes such platforms as unauthorised.
No. Each of the 10 either holds a foreign licence or has none we could confirm. The register above shows which is which.
In April 2025 the Securities and Exchange Commission named Quotex among offshore platforms operating without authorisation, referred the matter to the FIA, the PTA and Google, and advised the public not to open accounts, deposit funds or share personal data with it.
BinaryCent is listed in the Vanuatu regulator's own notice of fraud, which states the broker is neither incorporated nor licensed there. Reviews that credit it with a Vanuatu licence are repeating a claim the regulator denies.
Only if your account is held by the licensed company. Brokers often run several companies and onboard clients from here through an offshore one. The company name is in your account agreement — read it before you fund.
Open the regulator's own site, find its public register, search the company name, and compare the number and status with what the broker shows. Then search the local regulator's site for a warning about the brand. It takes about ten minutes.
Write to the broker and keep the reply. If it is licensed, escalate to the body named on the licence. If it is not, the local regulator cannot act for you, but suspected fraud can be reported to the cyber-crime authority.
Possibly, wherever the broker is based. We do not give tax advice — ask the tax authority or an adviser, and keep your account statements.