Open and competitive markets have created new opportunities for market participants for trading between different markets, thereby increasing liquidity and contributing to optimal use of existing network capacities.

In many regions, mainly the East Africa, this has resulted in severe congestion between different markets since existing network capacities are insufficient to satisfy the entire demand from the market.

Experience has also shown that many economies are too small to allow for sufficient competition to develop.

However, such obstacles may be overcome by merging markets into a single regional market.

Scope is thereby reduced for companies to gain market power and the compounded market can support a larger number of players.

This is being demonstrated by the successful establishment of the East African Capital Market Infrastructure (CMI) to link the four markets across within the region come the second part of this year 2021, trading at the Rwanda Stock Exchange (RSE) is expected to become fully automated.

Currently, only the Central Depository System (CSD) is operational where owners of shares and bonds have their accounts already automated.  At the moment, it takes two working days for one’s shares to be transferred to his or her names in an electronic format unlike before where it used to take up to three months to transfer stock ownership due to a tedious manual process.

This automation will not only make Rwanda Stock Exchange more efficient but also better in terms of attracting new investors to the market.

It is also an a facilitator of regional integration and helps to optimize operation of the overall system by removing boundary issues and allowing optimization of integrated production, market operations and trading.

Over time, focus has therefore shifted towards the integration of neighboring markets or, eventually, the creation of regional markets.

This trend has been observed in Europe, the U.S. and other regions world-wide.

East African Capital Market experts are helping stakeholders to understand the different concepts and assess the resulting opportunities, risks and requirements in the new environment of linking the markets using technology as an enabler.

Development towards regional markets varies both in the degree of integration and the concepts or instruments being used like cross listing of companies across the region.

Moreover, it is necessary to consider different market models and legal and regulatory issues as well as organizational, technical and procedural aspects.

Successful regional integration therefore requires a wide range of conceptual analysis and activities such as choice of integration models in technology like the one being used the East African markets of linking all the Automatic Trading Systems (ATS) and the Central Securities Depositories (CSD in the EAC region.

The overall objective is to allow a seamless movement of securities and payments between the different EAC Capital Markets compatible at the regional level. 

This project is fully backed by a whole set of regional capital market directives that have been created by the EAC partner states to allow smooth flow of investments into the region through the various stock exchanges.

Background

The economic performance in the East African Community (EAC) countries is projected at 1% in 2021 from 6.2% recorded in 2020, following a projected slowdown in all member countries compared to the previous year, with expected recessions in Uganda and Burundi.

The projected deceleration in growth is mainly due to the weak external demand and disruptions to supply chains and domestic production.

Activity in tourist dependent countries is expected to contract sharply in response to severe disruptions in travel and tourism activities.

The East African Community (EAC) has four operational stock exchanges; the NSE, RSE, DSE, USE in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda respectively.

A total of 110 companies are listed on the four exchanges; 62 on the NSE, 10 on the RSE, 21 on the DSE and 18 on the USE.

By mid of 2011, the four EAC stock exchanges commanded a combined equity market capitalization of US$ 22 billion for which NSE accounted for 55% with a market capitalization of US$ 12billion,” according to data from the EAC portal.

The Author of the Article is Mr. Robert Twagira, Head of Operations and Technology at Rwanda Stock Exchange with more than 10 years of experience in investment, Capital Markets and Technology.

Contact: rtwagira@rse.rw

Twitter: @twarobert

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (“ETI”), the Lomé based parent company of the Ecobank Group (www.Ecobank.com), was hosted today by the London Stock Exchange for a market opening virtual ceremony to celebrate the successful listing of the Tier 2 Sustainability Notes on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) main market.

This represents the first ever Tier 2 Sustainability Notes by a financial institution in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This Tier 2 issuance is the first to have a Basel III-compliant 10NC5 structure outside of South Africa in 144A/RegS format and is now listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.

The bond, which matures in June 2031, has a call option in June 2026 and was issued with a coupon of 8.75% with interest payable semi-annually in arrears.

An equivalent amount of the net proceeds from the notes will be used by ETI to finance or re-finance, new or existing eligible assets as described in ETI’s Sustainable Finance Framework, available at https://bit.ly/3j4xrlb on which DNV issued a Second Party Opinion.

Investor interest for this Sophomore Eurobond issue was global, including United Kingdom, United States, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa, achieving a 3.6x oversubscribed orderbook, of over US$1.3 billion at its peak.

Ade Ayeyemi, Group Chief Executive Officer of ETI, stated: “The strong global interest in our issuance reflects investors’ confidence in Ecobank’s strategy and our commitment to sustainable financing. We thank the LSE for hosting ETI today and look forward to value creation for all our stakeholders. ”

The Joint Lead Managers and Bookrunners in the transaction were Citi, Mashreq, Renaissance Capital and Standard Chartered Bank.

A global coalition of public development banks has emphasized the urgency of immediate resources for Africa’s recovery post-Covid 19. Together, they committed to deepening cooperation to boost investment opportunities across the continent.

Participants in the meeting, hosted by the African Development Bank on May 12, brainstormed on joint actions that could help boost a strong and inclusive recovery in Africa. This would be recovery grounded in a dynamic private sector.

The African Association of Development Finance Institutions co-organized the meeting in collaboration with the International Development Finance Club, which is hosted by the Agence Française de Développement.

The meeting was held virtually and follows the first Finance in Common Summit held in November 2020. At that summit, public development banks committed to work together to support the transformation of the global economy and society towards sustainable and resilient development.

During the three principal sessions of the meeting, heads of public development banks and international partners focused on concrete proposals and innovative financial solutions to unlock the potential of African financial institutions to promote sustainable development investments in Africa.

“The African Development Bank is strongly supportive of public development banks,” African Development Bank president Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina said in opening remarks.

He added: “As public development banks, we must deepen our ability to reach all parts of Africa. To ensure financial inclusion, especially for the unbanked, and expand access to finance, savings and insurance products and services, we need to work as one unified system. Public development banks must strengthen their capacity to deepen domestic capital markets and stock exchanges. He said this would hasten access to financing and unlock new opportunities.”

Rémy Rioux, chairperson of the International Development Finance Club, said: “African challenges, more than anywhere else, require us all to go seek coordinated responses and actions. Because in Africa, we need to leave no one behind. Let’s Finance in Common and build now a common and positive story of innovation and investment in Africa, leveraging ODA and mobilizing all willing stakeholders. The days of pure aid are over. Africa is ready for sustainable investment.”

Public development banks have a key role to play in Africa. From the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, institutions like the African Development Bank have channeled resources to various sectors and clients, particularly underserved areas like health, social investments, housing, agriculture and climate.

The African Development Bank’s $10 billion Covid-19 Response Facility has been instrumental in mitigating macroeconomic shocks for African countries. The Bank also announced a $3 billion social bond to support its Covid-19 funding efforts.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented global health and economic crisis, affecting African economies, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, most deeply.  A historic recession of 2.1%, the largest contraction for the sub-Saharan region in more than half a century, is threatening gains made over the last decade and attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The pandemic has negatively impacted the debt situation for African countries. Without a resolution of Africa’s $700 billion external debt, the continent’s economic recovery will be delayed and financial market stability will be affected in the short and medium term.

“Think of the impact that this debt is having: in 2019, Africa paid $221 billion for debt service, which is 44% of the total government revenue of $501 billion in the same year,” said Dr. Adesina.

Discussions covered measures that could be taken to strengthen the balance sheet of African public development banks and provide financing and additional tools to support the private sector in Africa. Participants also discussed challenges faced by African public development banks.

The African Development Bank president will convey the outcomes of the Spring Meeting to a May 18 Summit on Financing African Economies in Paris. That summit is being convened by French President Emmanuel Macron. It is expected that there will be further pledges and announcements of financial and technical assistance to support the commitments made by the African public development banks.

African public development banks, in a  joint declaration (https://bit.ly/3vZUTmP), called for the heads of state and international organizations to support our role in the African financial system and provide us with the necessary means and incentives: a clearer mandate for climate and SDGs, additional capacity building, greater access to concessional resources as well as reinforcement of our capital bases, taking advantage of the expected SDRs issuance by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)”.

The following public development banks and partners participated in the panel discussions:

Association of African Development Finance Institutions (AADFI), Association of European Development Finance Institutions (EDFI), African Development Bank, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), European Commission (EC), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank (EIB), Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), International Development Finance Club (IDFC), KfW Development Bank, Trade and Development Bank Group (TDB), and West African Development Bank (BOAD).