Agama Urges Collaboration Among African Markets

The Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dr. Emomotimi Agama, has called for stronger collaboration among African capital markets, stressing the need for deeper interconnection across the continent and the development of innovative financial products.

This comes as SEC Nigeria signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Capital Markets Authority of Rwanda in Abuja on Monday.

Under the agreement, both parties committed, within their respective mandates and applicable laws, to cooperate in areas including investor education and capital market development, exchange of information on regulatory and market developments, capacity building, training and technical assistance, as well as collaboration on enforcement and supervisory matters of mutual interest.

Speaking at the event, Dr. Agama stated that the Commission is ready to actively collaborate with African nations to harmonize regulations, promote cross-border listings, and enhance investor protection across the continent.

He said, “We are excited on this opportunity to help you develop your capital market. We need to cooperate in Africa, invest in each other’s market and grow our continent. In so doing, we will build collaboration so that as Africans we can have a focus and build a strong interconnection. The time is now for us to look inwards.

“We appreciate the strength of the Rwandan economy as we are aware of the flow of finance, commerce and other great things your President has done to rekindle the real value of the African race. On our part, we have a very strong capital market structure and we want to see what role the capital market can play in all of this,” he said.

Agama noted that the capital market is the nerve Centre of the economy, adding that the citizens need to understand how to use it to create wealth to improve their quality of life of the citizens.

He said, “The capital market is an enabler to the development of the economy and we believe there is so much for you to learn from us to help strengthen your own market. We are excited about what the future holds for us, we are willing to assist to contribute to the success of other nations.

“Our relationship and Integration will go a long way in building both markets and make life better for our citizens. As we forge a common front, we encourage government to use long-term capital for long-term projects. The capital market is the solution to raising funds for long-term infrastructure development.

“We see the capital market as a solution provider to move the economy forward. We want to make Africa better and a destination of choice. We want to jointly work with other regulators to achieve it.”

In his remarks, the Chief Executive Office of CMA Rwanda, Mr. Romeo Ngaranbe expressed his delight at the relationship between the two regulators saying that the capital market had evolved and people would rather invest in the capital market.

He noted, “We are here to learn from you as you have a more advanced capital market and we are sure we will gain some useful lessons that has aided the development of your capital market. Whatever you give us, we will make good use of it and we look forward to a fruitful partnership.