The Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dr Suleiman Ndanusa, said capital market integration would help to tackle the regional challenges and create a larger market for local and international businesses.
Ndanusa said this at the meeting of the West African Capital Markets Integration Council (WACMIC) in Abuja.
He said:“ Integrating West Africa’s capital markets will not only empower us as a more formidable competitor to other emerging markets but also help tackle the challenges of depth, breadth and liquidity. This will help create a much larger market for local and international businesses in the region. Integration could also usher in a wave of product innovation as expertise is utilised from across the region to churn out innovative products for different categories of businesses and investors.
“ According to the United Nations, by 2050, West Africa will host more people than North America and almost as many people as the Latin America of about 720 million. Investors are looking to capture this future growth and the onus is on us to create an integrated capital market that will serve as an ideal gateway for such investment.
Ndanusa said he was hopeful that the outcome of the deliberations would strengthen and promote efforts geared at integrating the West African Capital Markets.
He noted that the meeting was timely as it would review milestones attained, discuss WACMIC’s current status, identify what needed to be done and specify challenges to be surmounted. He added that the meeting was important because of the recent global economic environment that had led the International Monetary Fund to revise global growth expectation downward to 3.8 per cent.
The chairman said the first phase of the regional integration, which was the approval of Sponsored Access Framework, was already launched on April 1, 2014 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. He, however, urged the members to work towards ensuring the harmonisation of market processes, regimes and instruments while ensuring an adaptable environment and minimal cost of compliance.
