Continental union of stock exchanges on the cards

Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter 

THE African stock market industry is working on creating a union of all stock exchanges in the continent with the objective of enhancing collaboration and cross-border trading.

In its first phase, the Africa Exchanges Linkages Project is an initiative of the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) and is funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and some courier African partnership programmes. Seven stock exchanges from the continent were selected as a pilot project with the target being to have 15 exchanges at the end of the year and ultimately all exchanges in the continent. 

The first seven are Egyptian Stock Exchange, Casablanca Stock Exchange, Nairobi Stock Exchange, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Mauritius Stock Exchange, Nigeria Stock Exchange. Eligibility is open to any registered stock exchange and the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and Victoria Falls Stock Exchange are expected to represent Zimbabwe.

Speaking at the close of the Committee of Sadc Stock Exchanges (CoSSE) Bi-annual meeting and ASEA BAFM conference in Victoria Falls last week, ASEA president Mr Thapelo Tsheole said the project received US$600 000 funding for the second phase which would see the linkages project members expanding to 15 before the end of the year.

“The African Exchange Linkages Project is a collaborative effort meant to bring together stock exchanges with the aim of developing the market. We seek to expand the linkages project from seven members to 15 and as of now we have successfully sourced funding to the tune US$600 000. So, we are going to be bringing on board eight more stock exchanges to make them 15 before the end of the year,” he said.

Mr Tsheole said there was a need to create value for membership, increase presence on the continent, collaborate with Governments and regulators and be innovative as part of efforts to ensuring sustainability.

The African Exchange Linkages Project manager Ms Lina Touni said the seven stock exchanges were promoting cross border trading, with Botswana and Ghana already confirmed for the second phase.

“Botswana and Ghana are already on board for the second phase. We do have a criteria for joining and phase one was a pilot project where we selected seven exchanges from the region. The objective is to eventually create a network of all active members. We look at taxation policy and regulation because what we are doing is to facilitate cross border trading between securities,” she said.