West Africa Stock exchanges integration implementation likely this year – GSE MD

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Abidjan (Ivory
Coast), Feb. 13, GNA – The final phase of the integration of key stock
exchanges across the West African region to facilitate cross-border listing and
region-wide securities trading is likely to take off this year, Mr Ekow
Afedzie, Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange, has said.

Speaking to the
Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of the maiden World Bank Group J-CAP
conference on Capital Markets in Abidjan, Mr Afedzie said the integration of
the stock markets in West Africa was on course. 

“So, we are in the
second phase where we have the West African Regulators Association approving
the documents and the rules. Now we are seeking ECOWAS recognition for what is
being done so that it can bind all of us together. That is the stage we are
now. Then we can move to the implementation stage this year,” he said.

The initiative,
which is being developed by the West African Capital Markets Integration
Council (WACMIC), will integrate the capital markets with member exchanges
including the Nigeria Stock Exchange, the Ghana Stock Exchange, and the Bourse
Regionale de Valeurs Mobilieres (BRVM), which serves eight francophone West
African countries, and Cape Verde.

He said the first
phase of the three-prong integration agenda, which is the sponsored access for
stockbroking, had been completed.

“The second phase
which is the qualifying broker qualification is what is key to us. At that
level we harmonize all our rules both for listing, Initial Public Offerings,
and claims settlement in order to be able to allow brokers, who qualify by
meeting certain requirements to be able to trade across the region,” Mr Afedzie
said.

The third phase,
which is the implementation stage, involves linking members’ exchanges to a
virtual West African securities market.

Qualified West
African brokers will then be able to access the listed securities and market
information in the region to allow them to execute transactions, while issuers
will be able to raise capital across the region too.

“So, if you are a
broker in Nigeria and you meet the requirements and you are given the
recognition you can trade across,” Mr Afedzie added.

Touching on the
J-CAP conference, Mr Afedzie said it offered useful insight into how countries
could leverage capital markets to spur growth and economic development.

He said the
conference provided enough ingredients that would make capital markets
successful, especially in dealing with the cultural factors, which prevent many
entrepreneurs from going public with their business to allow others to join in.

There was also a
lesson on encouraging small and medium enterprises to issue bonds to spur
growth, especially for entrepreneurs unwilling to share their businesses with
others.

“So, overall it is a
useful programme, where they look at all facets of the capital market and
everything that we can do for the markets to grow,” Mr Afedzie added.

On his part, Dr Adu
Anane Antwi, a former Director-General of the Securities and Exchange
Commission, said a great lesson from the conference was the call on the Stock
Exchanges to encourage domestic investments as they cannot always relied on
foreign investors.  

The two-day capital
markets conference held on the theme: ‘Capital Markets: Investing for Growth’
is focused on the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), which is
made up of eight countries.

Government and
industry leaders from across five different continents participated in the
conference to discuss the most important trends, challenges, and opportunities
for WAEMU’s capital markets.

The World Bank and
IFC launched the Joint Capital Markets program (“J-CAP”) initiative in mid-2017
to affirm their commitment to the development of local capital markets.

The programme
mobilizes experts across the World Bank Group to unlock synergies and create
systemic impact in funding strategic sectors of the economy.

J-CAP is initially
focused on six target countries—Bangladesh, Kenya, Morocco, Peru, Vietnam,
Indonesia —as well as the region of the West African Economic & Monetary
Union.

GNA