East African bourses plan to have a single trading platform by December 2008 as part of efforts to integrate the region's capital markets.
Chris Mwebesa, chief executive officer of the Nairobi Stock Exchange, was quoted by Uganda's state-owned New Vision on Wednesday as saying that the East African Securities Regulatory Authorities' strategic plan was to integrate regional markets through cross listing.
"We have decided that as opposed to just trying to integrate the stock exchanges, we should integrate the capital markets, which is a bigger picture. Within that, the stock exchanges can find a way of working together," he said.
"Our new approach is to integrate our trading systems. We are calling it a single entry point for East Africa to trade shares that are listed across the region. This will enable investors and direct brokers in any locality to trade shares without going to those markets," he added.
Mwebesa noted that cross listing of shares was slower than anticipated because the onus of cross listing was with individual firms.
He said integration would be expeditious because the Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam bourses use the same systems provider."Twenty percent is what we need in terms of interfacing software. Two markets have systems in place, once Uganda comes on board, we will be able to integrate," Mwebesa said.
Source: Xinhua
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