adminDar es Salaam. – Tanzania, which has Africa’s best-performing stock market, lifted controls on foreign share ownership, the Capital Markets and Securities Authority said.
The removal of restrictions on foreigners owning more than 60 percent of companies that trade on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange was published in a Government Gazette dated Sept. 19, Charles Shirima, spokesman for the regulator, said by phone today from the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. Investors from the East African Community will also be allowed to buy as much as 40 percent of Tanzanian government securities, he said.
“It’s been approved,” he said. Finance Ministry Permanent Secretary Servacius Likwelile didn’t answer a call to his mobile phone seeking comment.
The 11-member Tanzania Share Index gained 73 percent in 2014, the most among 17 African gauges tracked by Bloomberg.
The Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange, which has a market capitalization of 21,9 trillion shillings ($13 billion), is targeting a market value equal to 50 percent of Tanzania’s gross domestic product by 2017, chief executive officer Moremi Marwa said in an interview last month.
“The market has been off-the-radar screen for foreign investors in recent quarters” because of the restrictions on foreign ownership, Renaissance Capital said in a September 9 research note. “With many major names already up to the 60 percent limit, there has been little ability for foreigners to access the market.”
Tanzania’s $33 billion economy, the largest in East Africa after Kenya, will expand 7,2 percent this year, according to World Bank estimates released recently and is poised to keep on growing. -Bloomberg.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter