Kenya rallies African support to host key US market index

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Kenya is rallying the rest of the continent for the world’s second-largest stock market to be set up in Nairobi as part of President William Ruto’s push for a reformed global financial architecture. 

Government officials on Monday unveiled plans for the inaugural Africa Capital Week, to be held in Nairobi from August 31 to September 4 this year, as part of a broader plan to enable the United States-based National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) to enter the continent. 

The push has been informed by Kenya’s ambition to mobilise funds for critical development projects owing to the formation of the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) and the National Infrastructure Fund (NIF). 

The two funds aim to mobilise private-sector capital for the country’s development agenda as the budget books grow thinner, with more debt to manage amid taxpayers who are already squeezed.

Kenya Vision 2030 Chairman Dr Emmanuel Nzai said deepening the capital markets is one of the board’s key mandates. He said the idea for Africa Capital Week was born after a visit to the United States, where the board sought investment for some projects in the country, on the sidelines of last year’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). During a meeting with NASDAQ, they were told that the main challenge to crowding in private-sector foreign capital is that Kenya’s Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) is small.

“That feedback we got from the best, NASDAQ,” he said.

Nzai said they held talks with top management at NASDAQ, who said they want a presence in Africa.

“Guess where they want it? Nairobi. But we are not ready for that because we are too scattered,” he said. “If they are to come, they would have to have a conversation with all of Africa’s stock exchanges, and so they are looking for Kenya to lead in that.”

The plan, he said, is to hold talks with at least 20 stock exchanges during that week.

Capital Markets Authority (CMA) Board Chair Ugas Mohamed spoke of how the capital markets have recovered from years of downtime, referencing the recent listing of Kenya Pipeline Company and corporate bonds by businesses whose issues were oversubscribed. 

For the past year, he said, market capitalisation at the NSE has oscillated between Sh2.8 trillion and Sh3.4 trillion. 

Even so, much of Africa’s stock exchange market capitalisation is still concentrated in three markets, namely, South Africa, Morocco and Egypt.