Seven of Africa’s largest securities exchanges are set to have an active link by the first quarter of 2021, according to an article on Bloomberg.com today 30 December.

The article quotes Karim Hajji, President of the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) and CEO of Casablanca Stock Exchange. He says the African Exchanges Linkage Project (AELP) will enable brokers on the Casablanca bourse, the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières in Abidjan, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the Stock Exchange of Mauritius, the Nairobi Securities Exchange and the Egyptian Exchange to place orders for securities on the other trading platforms.

The aim is to transform the number of trades on exchanges and boost free movement of capital across Africa. AELP is an initiative of ASEA and the African Development Bank (AfDB), and was boosted last November 2018 by a grant of $980,000 from the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Trust Fund (KOAFEC) through AfDB.

Hajji also told Bloomberg that the International Finance Corporation is funding a study of the potential for privatizing state-owned enterprises through partial listings on African exchanges. These would boost capital-market development, raise funds for governments and the companies to carry out investment programmes and broaden investor participation.

He says: “We want to improve the contribution of capital markets to the growth of the continent and also position African exchanges as the gateway for the development of the continent”.

Disclosure of interest – writer is Project Manager for AELP