Seven African stock exchanges start cross-border trading

Investors in seven stock markets that serve 14 African countries can now engage in cross-border securities trading following the launch of a special e-platform, the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has said.’

The seven exchanges, Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilieres (BRVM), Morocco’s Bourse de Casablanca, the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), South Africa’s Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), Kenya’s Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), and the Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM), are participating in the first phase of the African Exchanges Linkage Project (AELP).

The BRVM is a regional stock exchange serving Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. The exchange is located in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire; market offices are maintained in each of the eight western African countries.

The NSE said in a statement issued on Thursday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, that the AELP is supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA).

The seven African stock exchanges represent 2,000 companies with a 1.5 trillion U.S. dollar market capitalization, it said.

AfDB manager for capital markets development Ahmed Attout was quoted as saying in the statement that the project aims to industrialize and integrate Africa.

“It is also in tandem with the African Continental Free Trade Agreement’s objective of establishing a liberalized market to aid the movement of capital, facilitate investments and deepen the continent’s economic integration,” he said.

ASEA President Edoh Kossi Amenounve, for his part, said the AELP “represents a great opportunity for investors and issuers across the continent.”