Managers of African stock exchanges have selected 30 brokerage firms for cross-border trading, part of an ambitious project to integrate seven bourses with a combined market capitalisation of $1.25 trillion.
The latest move comes after the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) signed a contract with United Arab Emirates software firm DirectFN for the design and implementation of the software linking trading systems in the seven markets.
These stockmarkets are the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Nairobi Securities Exchange, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Stock Exchange of Mauritius, Egyptian Exchange, Casablanca Stock Exchange and Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM) integrating eight West African countries — Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
The African Exchanges Linkage Project (AELP) is a joint initiative of ASEA and the African Development Bank (AfDB) and seeks to promote cross-border trading and liquidity in African stock exchanges.
Already four exchanges — BRVM, Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE), Egyptian Exchange (EGX) and Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX) — have been successfully connected to the link trading terminal live environment.
“The facilitation of cross-border trading will open up the markets to a diverse portfolio and investment opportunities,” as well as enhance liquidity, said ASEA president Edoh Kossi Amenounve.
