Frontier African financial services group Imara said on Tuesday it had added Egypt and Morocco to its regional stock-broking footprint, its first foray beyond a historical sub-Saharan focus.

"Expansion of our trading capability has primarily been driven by client demand for a wider trading capability," said Alun Thomas, chief executive of Imara Africa Securities, the group’s Botswana-registered brokerage arm.

The addition of trading services for Tunisia was imminent, the company said.

Imara has one of the biggest trading networks in Africa’s fast-growing frontier markets, offering brokerage services in 14 African markets — Botswana, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the regional West African BRVM bourse out of Ivory Coast.

With the exception of Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa — far and away the continent’s biggest bourse — many African markets remain hampered by a lack of liquidity, making it difficult for external investors to build viable positions.