Kenya's capital markets will play a leading role in the economic transformation of the country, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) said on Wednesday.

Paul Muthaura, Acting Chief Executive Officer of the CMA, told an investor briefing in Nairobi that Kenya is currently at the cusp of a transition to a more developed economy.

"The capital markets will soon outsize the banking sector and will become the leading source of long term investments for the pensions and insurance sector," Muthaura said during an occasion to mark the official demutualization and self listing of the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). The NSE Initial Public Offering (IPO), which sought to raise seven million U.S. dollars, instead received 54 million dollars from investors. Kenya's capital markets have in the past ten years raised more than 29.3 billion dollars, which is about 60 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product. "Even more noteworthy is that the total value of equity and bonds as measured by market capitalization is currently more than 33.8 billion dollars," Muthaura added.

He said that Kenya continues to transform into the premiere capital destination in Africa. "We will rise to the top only if we uphold the highest standards on governance and accountability," he added.

CMA Acting Chairman Paul Ngugi said that NSE plans to raise its capacity to roll out more sophisticated products and services in competition with modern securities exchange across the globe.

The exchange is implementing technologies that will ensure Kenya's capital markets are integrated with global markets.

He added that once the NSE becomes a self regulatory organization, it will have powers to create and enforce industry regulations for the benefit of investors. Endi

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)