of MARIA MACHARIA in Nairobi, Kenya
Kenya Office
NAIROBI, (CAJ News) – The African Trade Linkage Project (AELP), which has been launched, is a milestone in facilitating cross-border trade and the free movement of investment on the continent.
The start-up began when the platform was officially launched last Friday.
The interconnectivity platform enables the trading of publicly traded securities on seven participating stock exchanges, for the first phase.
These are the West African regional Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilieres (BRVM), the Casablanca Bourse (Morocco), the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX), the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE, South Africa), the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE, Kenya), the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX) and the Mauritius Stock Exchange (SEM).
The Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) and the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) will initiate the second phase of the AELP, with technical connectivity to the Link expected to begin in 2023.
AELP is a flagship project of the African Stock Exchanges Association (ASEA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Dr. Edoh Kossi Amenounve, President of ASEA, said the start-up was a great milestone in achieving ASEA’s mission of engaging the African capital market ecosystems.
This is to encourage capital mobilization, promote sustainability and enhance financial inclusion for the benefit of Africa’s economic development.
The harmonization of the trading infrastructure through the link is expected to facilitate existing trading processes and potentially reduce the cost of trading in the African capital markets.
“Therefore, I congratulate all the participating exchanges and the respective brokers for pioneering this great pan-African integration initiative,” Amenounve said.
ASEA signed a contract with DirectFN for the design and implementation of the AELP link which is hosted on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Each exchange will connect five stockbrokers or stock dealers to the link.
“This is a historic moment for Africa to finally update the peg of stock markets in Africa after many failed attempts in the last two
decades,” said Willie Njoroge, organizing secretary of the African Association of Stockbrokers and Securities Dealers.
ASEA was incorporated in 1993 in Nairobi. It has 26 full members and six associate members.
– CAJ News
