Are Africa's stock exchanges lagging?
December 9, 2022--African capital markets are falling behind the growth of global markets. African markets have 1.4% of global market capitalization and the share is falling, says Nandini Sukumar, CEO of the World Federation of Exchanges.
Africa's 26 African exchanges have averaged 2 IPOs per month across the continent, compared to 670 on world exchanges in December 2021 and over 700 in July 2021.
Market capitalization on African exchanges was $1.2 trillion at the start of 2020 and rose to $1.3 trn by July 2022. Meanwhile the market capitalization on world exchanges climbed from $80 trn to $95 trn.
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Source: africancapitalmarketsnews.com
Kenya: NSE Links With Seven African Capital Markets
December 9, 2022--Investors at the Nairobi Securities Exchange(NSE) will now be able to trade in seven stock exchanges across 14 African countries having access to over 2,000 companies with roughly USD1.5 trillion market capitalization.
This is after the African Exchanges Linkage Project (AELP) unveiled an e-platform (The AELP Link), enabling seamless cross-border securities trading among the seven African stock exchanges.
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Source: allafrica.com
African Development Bank, World Bank to jointly launch Electricity Regulatory Index reports for Africa and the world
December 8, 2022--The African Development Bank and the World Bank joined forces to launch parallel reports, respectively capturing the state of power sector regulation in Africa, and more broadly across the developing world. The launch event was attended by 240 attendees including government officials, regulatory entities, development finance institutions and African and international private sector stakeholders.
The African Development Bank's Electricity Regulation Index (ERI), running since 2018, has been widely adopted by regulators and other stakeholders across the African continent to benchmark electricity regulatory environments and to guide reforms in the sector. The new fifth edition covers 44 of the 45 African countries that host independent regulatory authorities.
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Source: worldbank.org
African exchanges link AELP demonstrates share trades
December 8, 2022--The cross-border trading platform linking seven of Africa's leading securities exchanges was launched yesterday 7 December in Abidjan.
The link gives access to over 1,000 of Africa's biggest and most promising companies, companies with nearly $1.4 trillion of market capitalization (total value of equities listed).
The African Exchanges Linkage Project (AELP- www.africanexchangeslink.com ) trading platform is an order-routing system and allows sharing of market and order-book data. Technology firm DirectFN is deploying the system, which went live on 18 November following a beta testing period.
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Source: africancapitalmarketsnews.com
South Africa: GDP Rises By 1.6 Percent
December 5, 2022--South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 1.6% between July and September, Deputy Director General for Economic Statistics, Joe de Beer, announced on Tuesday.
The main attributors, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said, were the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries, which increased by 19.2% in the third quarter, contributing 0.5 of a percentage point to GDP growth.
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Source: allafrica.com
Africa's AfCFTA Free Trade Agreement Takes Baby Steps
December 5, 2022--A handful of African companies have finally started shipping goods under the long-delayed AfCFTA free trade agreement. They're part of a new initiative to kick-start intra-African trade.
It's been a long time coming, but several African nations have started trading a trickle of goods under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.
Kenya has shipped locally-made car and truck batteries as well as a consignment of Kenyan-grown tea to Ghana in the past months. Rwanda has also exported processed coffee beans to the West African nation.
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Source: allafrica.com
Nigeria's Third-Quarter Economic Growth Slows to 2.25%
November 25, 2022--The NBS said this growth rate declined from 4.03 per cent in the third quarter of 2021.
Nigeria's economy grew by 2.25 per cent in real terms in the third quarter of 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics has said.
The Gross Domestic Product, which measures the size of the economy, expanded at a slower rate than in the third quarter of 2021, the NBS said Thursday.
The NBS said this growth rate declined from 4.03 per cent in the third quarter of 2021.
According to the bureau, the reduction in growth is attributable to the effects of the 2020 recession and the challenging economic conditions that have impeded productive activities.
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Source: allafrica.com
Progress towards Ethiopia's Stock Exchange
November 24, 2022--At least 50 companies are expected to list when Ethiopia's stock exchange launches. The country's new $38bn sovereign wealth fund Ethiopia Investment Holdings (EIH) is working with the Ministry of Finance and Nairobi-based FSD Africa to set up the Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX) with an aim to get it operating by end 2023 or in the first half of 2024.
Ethiopia Investment Holdings has set up a project team with FSD Africa, backed by British Government development aid, and in September was inviting consultants to bid for a fund-raising drive to raise capital for the new bourse. The project team is to develop the ESX business plan and its structures, as well as outlining the market segments. It is also to lead developing the ESX trading rules, policies and procedures, the ESX trading and operating systems, and other ICT infrastructure. It will set the ESX into operations and launch it.
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Source: africancapitalmarketsnews.com
Africa's Growing Crypto Market Needs Better Regulations
November 22, 2022--The risks from crypto assets are evident-it's time to regulate
The collapse of the world's third largest crypto exchange FTX, and subsequent plunge in the prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other major crypto assets, is prompting renewed calls for greater consumer protection and regulation of the crypto industry.
Regulating a highly volatile and decentralized system remains a challenge for most governments, requiring a balance between minimizing risk and maximizing innovation.
Only one-quarter of countries in sub-Saharan Africa formally regulate crypto. However, as our Chart of the Week shows, two-thirds have implemented some restrictions and six countries-Cameroon, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and the Republic of Congo-have banned crypto. Zimbabwe has ordered all banks to stop processing transactions and Liberia directed a local crypto startup to cease operations (implicit bans).
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Source: IMF.org
African Exchanges Link platform goes live today
November 18, 2022--A cross-border order-routing platform linking seven leading African securities exchanges has gone live today, 18 November. The African Exchanges Linkage Project (AELP) technology allows 33 stockbrokers across Africa to send client orders to each other and brings the brokers live data from each of the exchanges.
The AELP platform was officially switched on at 00:00 UTC, according to this announcement .
The African Exchanges Linkage Project is a flagship project of the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to facilitate cross-border trading of securities in Africa. It aims to boost liquidity in securities trading on African stock exchanges and support capital markets development in Africa.
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Source: africancapitalmarketsnews.com