The 7th edition of the Building African Financial Markets (BAFM) seminar has kicked off today, April 19, 2018, at Villa Rosa Kempinski, Nairobi. The two-day event has been organised by African Securities Exchange Association (ASEA) and is being hosted by the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE).
Themed ‘Adaptive innovation as a lever for the growth and sustainable development of African financial markets’, aims to boost financial market growth.
Among the topics for discussion at the forum is leveraging technology in the Affective Risk Management & Regulation of African Capital Markets.
Giving his opening remarks, Deputy President of Kenya, Hon William Ruto acknowledged that the Capital Market is a key pillar and plays a major role with regards to Kenya’s economy and the Big 4 Agenda.
“As a government, we intend to create affordable capital for the private sector in line with the Government’s intention to reduce the cost of capital in Kenya to single-digit levels,” he said.
In Kenya, 80 percent of stocks in the bourse are a product of divestiture by Governments companies and it (Kenya) considers the capital market as a conduit for its privatization policies.
Further, Ruto applauded the leading role capital market operators have played in promoting asset ownership and wealth creation amongst entrepreneurs.
This is the second time Kenya is hosting members and stakeholders of the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA), the first time being November 2014.
On his part, the NSE CEO Geoffrey Odundo stated that BAFM emphasis on knowledge building and global competitiveness of African financial markets and this edition will be a platform to open more investment opportunities in Africa.
“NSE will soon launch the derivatives market and as we seek to offer better opportunities to Kenyan investors keen on diversifying their investment portfolio away from the local economy, we are in talks with a number of African markets to link six markets to enable cross-border trading,” Odundo added.
“If we are to deliver robust African capital markets we must deepen the capacity of the complementary professionals, support independent auditor oversight, robust corporate governance and globally benchmarked certification standards,” said Capital Markets Authority (CMA) CEO, Paul Muthaura.
Recently, President Uhuru visited London during the Commonwealth week to open the trading and build ties with the United Kingdom. During the visit, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) partnered with Kenya on the Big 4 Agenda with focus on the affordable housing agenda. This also opened an opportunity for National Oil Corporation to list at both the NSE and LSEplc.
Register for the Finnovation Africa Summit here: Happening at the Radisson Blu in Nairobi, Kenya on the 31st of May 2018.
