AfDB, ASEA collaborate to develop Africa's capital markets

13 Jul 2016
Financial Nigeria

Summary

Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said strengthening and deepening Africa’s financial markets is a powerful tool to mobilize domestic and international savings.

AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) have signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to harmonize efforts towards deepening and connecting African financial markets.

According to a statement issued on Monday by the AfDB, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the AfDB, said the strengthening and deepening of Africa’s financial markets is a powerful tool to mobilize domestic and international savings at an efficient cost, and channel them towards funding Africa’s private sector.

The partnership will facilitate various projects such as financial markets infrastructure development, introduction of new products in the market, improving market liquidity and market participation, information sharing and capacity building, amongst other programmes.

The maiden project to be undertaken under the partnership is the African Exchanges Linkage Project (AELP), which is aimed at addressing the lack of liquidity in African capital markets by creating linkages across markets.

According to Oscar N. Onyema, ASEA President and CEO of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the AELP will support innovation by stimulating the creation of suitable products in relation to instruments listed on the various linked markets. Onyema also said the linkages will also afford issuers access to deeper pools of capital and a wider community of investors and analysts.

The AELP will commence with the four pilot exchanges – the Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE), the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NbSE) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). The pilot exchanges were selected by the ASEA as regional hubs during the incubation phase of the project. The AELP will be rolled out eventually to include other ASEA member exchanges.


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