The BRVM Investment Days roadshow is back in Johannesburg for two days from tomorrow (7-8 May). The highly successful West African regional exchange is organizing two days of strategic dialogue on investment opportunities in West Africa, including a day of discussions on a new agricultural commodity exchange opening in Abidjan.
Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM) is the uniquely successful eight-country regional exchange, drawing together Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. These make up the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU – UEMOA in French) and they share a common currency and a single central bank and capital markets regulator.
The event will be hosted by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Speakers include:
- BRVM: Edoh Kossi Amenounve, CEO; Parfait Kouassi, Chairman
- Top officials and executives from finance institutions in WAEMU region: Badanam Patoki, President of the Financial Markets Authority of the West African Monetary Union (AMF-UMOA); Serge Ekué, President of the West African Development Bank (BOAD); and Kouakou Hyppolite Konan, Head of the WAEMU Commission’s Monetary Policy Monitoring Division
- Côte d’Ivoire focus: Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, Minister of Agriculture; Adama Coulibaly, Minister of Finance and Budget; and other high-level ministerial and government officials.
- Market participants: Jerôme Ahua, Deputy Managing Director of the Banque Nationale d’Investissement de Côte d’Ivoire (BNI); Michael Barnes, owner of African Alliance Securities Trading and Imvula Securities; Bineta Dior Beye, CFO for Sonatel Group; Kadidiatou Fadika-Coulibaly, partner and manager at Hudson & Cie stockbrokers; and Tamsin Freemantle, capital markets development consultant.
The 7 May agenda covers African agricultural commodities exchanges and the launch of Côte d’Ivoire’s Bourse des Matières Premières Agricoles de Côte d’Ivoire (BMPA-CI), now concluding its pilot phase. The workshop features panel discussions, talks and interactive sessions with sector experts, regulators and authorities. BMPA-CI is WAEMU’s first Agricultural Commodities Exchange and will serve as the model for setting up the WAEMU Regional Agricultural Commodities Exchange, integrating all eight countries of the sub-region.
On 8 May the focus will be on WAEMU regional investment opportunities including investor sessions covering the economic perspective, market progress, and the business and investment outlook for the BRVM markets, with a focus on Côte d’Ivoire.
Dr Amenounve will discuss the BRVM’s memorandum of understanding signed in April 2024 with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) to strengthen collaboration on stock market capacity-building and facilitate access to green, social and sustainability (GSS) bonds in francophone West African countries, as well as access to climate finance and green investment.
According to the press release: “The BRVM Investment Days provides not only a detailed deep-dive into the West African business and investment landscape but also rare opportunities to engage in meaningful discussion with high-level government officials and leading regional authorities.”
Previously the BRVM has organized roadshows to New York, London and South Africa in 2015 and 2018. By the end of 2023, the 25-year-old BRVM ranked as Africa’s fifth largest stock exchange by market capitalization ($12.9 billion). Over the last decade, the BRVM posted an average return of more than 12% on its equity market and a return of over 6% on its bond market (the WAEMU currency is linked to the euro). BRVM It has 46 listed companies and 95 bonds. It is a full member of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) and the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA).
Sponsors for the Investment Days include the BMPA-CI, Sonatel, Kaydan Asset Management, SA2IF, Capital Markets Africa, BRVM TV, Africa.com, CFA Society Africa and Capital Markets in Africa.
