By Adedapo Adesanya
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Mr Oscar Onyema, has reiterated that seven major African stock exchanges will be linked by next year to boost investment opportunities across the continent.
Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Onyema, who is also the president of the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA), noted that the cross-border trading and settlement of securities which will link the seven top exchanges may be settled by the first quarter of 2021.
“What we are looking at to do is to link our markets and give investors in domestic economies the opportunities to access assets across border. So, a Nigerian investor can sit in Nigeria and buy shares across these seven countries.”
The NSE Chief said those coming together to form the alliance are the NSE; Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE); the Egyptian Exchange (EGX); Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE); Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE); Côte d’Ivoire’s Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières SA (BRVM)- which covers the French speaking West African countries; and Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM).
He added, “Between those seven markets, they cover over 85 to 90 percent of activities on the continent. It is basically a way to investors any opportunities to access African markets,” adding that this was not only restricted to Intra-African markets but available to foreign markets.
Speaking on how the signing of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement will play a huge role in this, Mr Onyema noted, “I know a lot of people are focused on trade, but there is a service aspect and movement of securities, payment systems, among others will fall under this.”
Mr Onyema assured that the remaining 20 stock exchanges that make up the ASEA will follow once the linkage is established by the first quarter of 2021.
“These seven exchanges are the pilot exchanges, once we are up and running, the smaller exchanges will then have a roadmap with which they can join on and begin to participate.”
On the NSE’s demutualisation process, Mr Onyema noted that following the receiving of the No Objection letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to operate as a demutualised exchange, the next step was to call a court ordered meeting and an Emergency General Meeting (EGM) to get approval from the membership to finalise the demutualisation process.
Clarifying why there would be two meetings, he said the court ordered meeting was to look into the necessary restructuring of the company in terms of proper allocation of capital and resources ahead of a post demutualised bourse while the EGM was to get the approval of the membership.
He then said that the NSE would continue to work hard to improve the capital market environment in Nigeria using its 2018 -2021 strategies.
Dipo Olowookere