Investment platform Bamboo has announced a 20 percent cut in commissions on US and Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) stocks after its app experienced login failures as investors rushed to participate in the Dangote Refinery public offer.
The platform said the commission reduction will take effect from Wednesday and run until the end of September, following the disruption that left some users unable to log in, fund their accounts or invest when the N2.15 trillion offer opened on Monday.
Bamboo CEO Richmond Bassey apologised to users in an email, acknowledging that the platform failed to deliver a seamless experience as demand surged around one of Nigeria’s biggest retail investment opportunities.
“Yesterday, many of you struggled to access the Bamboo app, fund your accounts or invest,” Richmond said.
Bamboo’s app struggled under IPO demand
The disruption occurred shortly after the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE public offer opened on September 14, with investors turning to digital platforms to subscribe for shares.
Bamboo had initially acknowledged the login problems on its official X account, saying traffic from users trying to access the Dangote IPO was significantly higher than anticipated.
“Hey everyone, we’re getting a much higher-than-expected traffic trying to get into the Dangote IPO, and it’s making it difficult for some users to log into the Bamboo app,” the company said.
The platform later confirmed that it had restored its systems, although it said it wanted to ensure everything was working properly before making a wider announcement.
In his email, Richmond said Bamboo had prepared for increased demand but acknowledged that its preparations were not sufficient for the scale of traffic that eventually hit the platform.
“Our team worked hard to prepare for the increased demand but ultimately, our efforts fell significantly short,” he said.
The CEO added that the company had made changes to strengthen the platform and improve its ability to handle similar traffic levels in the future.
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Investors were locked out at a critical moment
The timing of the outage made the disruption particularly significant for retail investors.
Users who could not log into the platform reported difficulties accessing their accounts, funding their wallets and completing transactions as interest in the Dangote offer surged.
TechMedia Africa’s review of complaints posted on Bamboo’s X post shows that affected investors reported different problems, ranging from difficulties activating accounts and withdrawing funds to failed IPO purchases and cases where users said they were debited more than once.
One investor, Noah Ojodale Meshach, said he was unable to activate his Bamboo account to purchase Dangote Refinery shares and subsequently faced delays after requesting a withdrawal.
“I truly don’t understand what is happening. After failing to activate my bamboo account to make the Dangote shares purchase, I decided to withdraw my money back to my personal savings account, only for them to say it would take 3 days. Refund me my money please,” Meshach wrote.
Another investor, Usman Isah Abubakar, said he was charged twice for a Dangote Refinery IPO purchase and was still waiting for a response after contacting Bamboo.
“I am writing to report an issue with my recent purchase of Dangote Refinery IPO through my Bamboo account. I was debited two times, and I sent mail still am waiting your response. Thank you,” Abubakar wrote.
Some investors also criticised Bamboo for what they considered inadequate preparation for the expected surge in demand.
Ayòtòmídé questioned why the platform had not anticipated the traffic after promoting the IPO to its users.
“You weren’t expecting this much traffic but you were advertising how to buy an IPO to 200m Nigerians! You’re not ready,” Ayòtòmídé wrote.
Another user, Anu ka ikpu, similarly accused Bamboo of failing to prepare its infrastructure for the expected influx of investors.
“You had more than 6months to prepare for today, upgrade ypur server and app….everyone knows that would be massive influx of people into Dangote ipo except yous……am shut out, i cant execute my trade today all bc Bamboo is incompetent.”
The complaints illustrate the practical impact of the disruption for investors attempting to participate in the public offer on its opening day. However, the individual reports do not by themselves establish how widespread each problem was across Bamboo’s user base.
Bamboo acknowledged the frustration caused by the incident and said it accepted responsibility for the failure.
“We know we let you down, and we take full responsibility, and we’re going to work to make it up to you,” Richmond said.
The company said the commission reduction was its first step towards rebuilding customer confidence after the outage.
“We know an apology doesn’t fix the frustration you experienced. Trust is earned through action, and we’re committed to earning yours back. To start, we’re going to cut all commissions across both US and NGX stocks by 20 percent starting tomorrow till the end of September,” the CEO said.
Why the Dangote IPO is putting pressure on digital platforms
The outage shows the scale of expected retail participation in the Dangote Refinery public offer.
The N2.15 trillion offer is being distributed through about 55 approved electronic channels, including bank applications, the NGX Invest platform, fintech companies and investment platforms.
The breadth of the distribution network reflects the effort to make the offer accessible to a large pool of individual investors.
It is estimated that the IPO, Africa’s largest ever share sale, would attract as many as 10 million potential subscribers, which ultimately put significant pressure on digital channels expected to handle large volumes of account logins, funding and subscription activity.
Bamboo, launched by Richmond Bassey, with his co-founder co-founder and COO Yanmo Omorogbe in 2019, is one of the platforms participating in the offer and has become a significant route into Nigerian equities for retail investors.
The platform accounted for 3.8 million equity transactions between January and July 2026, representing about 22% of all equity deals on the NGX during the period.
Other digital channels available for the offer include NGX Invest, GetEquity, Meritrade, PiggyVest and Cowrywise, alongside participating banks.
Bamboo says there is still time to subscribe
Despite the disruption, Bamboo is urging investors not to assume they have missed the opportunity.
The company said the Dangote IPO will remain open until October 13 and that subscriptions are not being allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
“The Dangote IPO is running non-stop till the 13th of October,” Richmond said. “The price doesn’t change and the allocation will not be done on a first-come, first-served basis so there’s still time for you to get in.”
The company said its app is now fully operational and that it has implemented changes to strengthen its systems following the incident.
