EGX Hosts the 9th edition of ASEA’s BAFM Seminar
Wednesday, 11 August 2021Egyptian Exchange Posted
The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) hosted ASEA’s 9th edition of the Building African Financial Markets (BAFM) seminar entitled; “Towards Borderless African Capital Markets & Sustainability” virtually. The seminar discussed issues pertaining to cooperation and integration of African capital markets to stimulate their efficiency and competitiveness globally. The event was attended by ASEA’s member exchanges, international exchanges and international institutions.
Dr. Edoh Amenounve, Presentment of African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) and CEO of Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM) stated during his opening remarks; “Our continent and the whole world are facing a number of challenges such as climate change, rise of social inequalities, pandemics, etc.. as such we (ASEA) need to adjust our strategies to deliver high societal values and to achieve sustainable development.”
Dr. Mohamed Farid, Executive Chairman of EGX & Chairman of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS) said during his opening remarks that the transformation of capital markets after the pandemic was unprecedented. Especially with the increased reliance on financial technology to ensure the continuity of trading as the main objective of financial market is to maintain the efficiency of trade. He applauded the African markets for having a business continuity plan that their sustainability during these hard times.
The first session entitled “The structure of the African capital market after the pandemic”, where the panelists; Ahmed Attout, Division manager-Capital Markets Division, African Development Bank (AfDB), Nandini Sukumar, CEO of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), Dr. Alex Pivovarsky, Director of Capital Markets Development Department (EBRD) & Dr. Mohamed Farid, Chairman of EGX & FEAS, discussed means of developing stock exchanges in light of the variables imposed by the pandemic and means of stimulating institutional investments. The panel also analyzed the increasing rate of retail investments globally and the increasing importance of ESG and transparency in making financial decisions post pandemic.
“Digitization of capital markets in the new reality”, was discussed by Rami Al-Dakani, Secretary General of the Arab Federation of Exchanges, Namer Khan, Chairman of MENA Fintech, Noha Shaker, Vice President of the African Financial Technology Group, and Dr. Konstantin Saruyan, Secretary General of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS). The panelists discussed the role of financial technology in supporting digital trading to ensure business continuity of African exchanges, challenges facing the implementation of KYC for capital markets and the importance of Fintech for serving clients and for compliance.
Sustainability activities and efforts of African Stock Exchanges was discussed with Douglas Kativo, Director at GRI Africa, Waithera Mwai-Ireri, Manager, corporate affairs and Sustainability, Olumide Orojimi, Head of Corporate Communications, Nigeria Exchange Group.
The last session discussed integration of the African Capital Markets with the participation of Akin Adigun, Senior Investment Officer AfDB, Dr. Dossina Yeo, Head of Economic Policy, African Union Commission (AUC), Ekow Afedze, Managing Director, Ghana Stock Exchange, Geoffrey Odundo, Chief Executive, Nairobi Stock Exchange and Tom Minney, Project Manager of the African Exchanges Linkage Project. The session discussed the integration of the 7 exchanges, Casablanca Stock Exchange, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Stock Exchange of Mauritius, Nairobi Stock Exchange, Nigeria Stock Exchange, BRVM, and The Egyptian Exchange. The session discussed the potentials of this integration and the implementation phase of it.
The event was concluded with closing remarks from Dr. Edoh Amenounve and Dr. Mohamed Farid Saleh with all the good wishes that the event was fruitful to all participants and the hope that ASEA members will be able to meet physically soon.
View panels through EGX’s youtube channel; https://www.youtube.com/user/EGxful
