African exchanges facilitate cross-border investments
from MARIA MACHARIA in Nairobi, Kenya
NAIROBI – THE African Exchanges Linkage Project (AELP), which has gone live, is a milestone in facilitating cross-border trading and free movement of investments on the continent.
The go-live commenced when the platform was officially launched this past Friday.
The inter-connectivity platform enables the trading of exchange-listed securities across seven participating securities exchanges, for the first phase.
These are West African’s regional Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilieres (BRVM), Bourse de Casablanca (Morocco), Egyptian Exchange (EGX), Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE, South Africa), Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE, Kenya), Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) and Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM).
The Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) and Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) will kick off the second phase of the AELP, with technical connectivity to the Link expected to commence in 2023.
AELP is a flagship project of the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Dr Edoh Kossi Amenounve, ASEA President, said the go-live was a great milestone towards achieving ASEA’s mission to engage African capital market ecosystems.
This is in order to foster capital mobilisation, promote sustainability and enhance financial inclusion for the benefit of Africa’s economic development.
Trading infrastructure harmonisation through the link is expected to ease existing trading processes and potentially reduce the cost of trading across African capital markets.
“I therefore congratulate all the participating exchanges and the respective brokers for being front-runners in this great pan-African integration initiative,” Amenounve said.
ASEA signed a contract with DirectFN for the design and implementation of the AELP Link that is hosted on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Each exchange will connect five stockbrokers or securities dealers to the link.
“This is a historic moment for Africa, to finally actualize the linking of stock exchanges across Africa after many unsuccessful attempts over the last two
decades,” Willie Njoroge, African Stockbrokers and Securities Dealers Association Organising Secretary, said.
ASEA was incorporated in 1993 in Nairobi. It has 26 full members and six associate members.
– CAJ News
