admin
Business Reporter
THE African Development Bank (AfDB) has joined hands with the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) on a drive to reduce the continent’s infrastructure gap, estimated at $107 million per year.
The two parties have initiated what is called the “African Exchanges Linkages Project” to close the infrastructural deficit in Africa through a wider financing pool for African corporates and small to medium enterprises.
The African Exchanges Linkages Project (AELP) is expected to facilitate cross-border trading and settlement of securities across participating bourses in Africa.
It also seeks to unlock Pan-African investment flows, promote innovations that support diversification needs of investors and addressing lack of depth and liquidity in Africa’s financial markets.
“The partnership between us and ASEA complements the bank’s interventions towards deep and resilient capital markets in Africa. The African Exchanges Linkage Project will contribute to a wider financing pool for African corporates and SMEs and help close Africa’s infrastructure deficit, estimated at US$67–107 billion annually,” said AfDB.
“Indeed, the continent needs deep, liquid and linked capital markets that will enable accelerated mobilisation of domestic resources and incentivise private financing of infrastructure.”
In November 2018, African capital markets received through AfDB, a US$980 000 grant from the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation fund.
Last week, AfDB working with ASEA hosted the first capital market stakeholders’ roundtable on AELP at the bank’s headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The one-day meeting marked the inaugural working session of key players across African capital markets to discuss the implementation of the initiative.
ASEA president and chief executive of the Casablanca Stock Exchange Mr Karim Hajji noted the importance of the project, saying that regional integration was a high priority continental agenda.
“By organically linking seven exchanges in Africa, which collectively have a market capitalisation of over US$1,4 trillion, the AELP will stimulate intra-African flows and provide opportunities for investors and trading participants in over 14 African countries. With the expected outcome of boosting liquidity in African capital markets, the AELP will unlock the powerful potential of African markets to access and redistribute domestic capital for economic development,” he said.
Online Reporter