Cameroonian banking tycoon Paul Fokam's Afriland cleared to run Togo's second brokerage

Cameroonian banking tycoon Paul Fokam's Afriland First Group has won approval from West Africa's financial markets regulator to run a stock brokerage in Togo, giving the country its second firm licensed to trade on the region's shared stock exchange.

The brokerage, Africa Diamond Invest, was set up in Lomé by Afriland First Holding, the group's regional investment arm, with capital of 1 billion CFA francs ($1.7 million). The Autorité des Marchés Financiers de l'UMOA, which regulates securities markets in the eight countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union, approved its application to operate as a société de gestion et d'intermédiation, or SGI, at the 101st meeting of its executive committee on Oct. 6. The approval, which carries conditions the firm must meet, was communicated to the company in a letter dated Oct. 8.

SGIs are the only firms allowed to buy and sell shares and bonds on behalf of clients on the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières, or BRVM, the Abidjan-based exchange that serves Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. Africa Diamond Invest plans to act as a broker between regional investors and companies listed on the BRVM and to manage investment portfolios.

A Lomé base

Africa Diamond Invest was created in May 2025. Victorin Dagba, formerly head of legal affairs and debt recovery at Afriland First Bank Guinée, has run the firm since August 2025, when the board named him to replace Kwenda Feutat Simplot at a meeting on Aug. 12.

Afriland First Holding was registered in Togo in September 2022 with initial capital of 100 million CFA francs ($171,000). It is headed by Christian Fogaing Kammogne, Fokam's son, who spent six years as deputy managing director of Afriland First Bank Côte d'Ivoire before taking the post. Fokam chose Lomé for the holding company because of the Togolese government's push to turn the country into a regional investment hub.

The brokerage is part of a wider move by the group into capital markets and investment services in West Africa. In June, Afriland also expanded into financial advisory work and sukuk, the Islamic bonds used by governments and companies across the region to raise money.

The banker behind Afriland

Fokam founded the bank that became Afriland First Bank in Cameroon in 1987. It began life as the Caisse Commune d'Epargne et d'Investissement. Afriland First Group, now headquartered in Geneva, operates in about a dozen countries across Africa, Europe and China.

Figures were converted at 586 CFA francs to the dollar.