African Could Drive A Globally New Stock Exchange Model
LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – For decades, analysts and influencers have believed that Africa would emerge from its colonised past most powerfully by developing new business and economic models.
The global economy had evolved in the West and could therefore not hope to accurately serve the needs of nations that had been bereft of wealth and self-determination for so long.
Africa would need to leapfrog Western habits of thinking, creating new approaches to politics, economics, business, and trade. In the process, its fresh view could be world leading and, very likely, world changing.
One such example already exists – in the stock markets.
Empowering innovation
Africa is increasingly finding the confidence to abandon outdated and irrelevant economic and business rules and trust its own wisdom. The advent of technology, particularly mobile devices, has provided the tools African entrepreneurs could most easily use to innovate in order to bring services and financial access to the broader population. Africans living in
America can do instant money transfers to their relatives in remote areas of their home countries. The Kenyan stock exchange enabled mobile trading some years ago. Thanks to Ushahidi, election disruption can be reported in real time. E-learning is improving education across the continent. E-health is enabling healthcare delivery to remote communities. Some of the continent’s largest banks are creating mobile – phone based mini branches on the streets and in markets, bringing the unbanked into the mainstream economy.
But, until recently, profound and truly transformative change in the financial markets has remained elusive.
Because of the large sums of money needed to trade corporate shares, the vast majority of Africans are still excluded from the ability to buy and sell shares on stock exchanges. And, the vast majority of small and medium sized businesses cannot afford the complex and costly procedures needed to be able to list on exchanges.
An extract from the INTO AFRICA August Edition: Driving Africa Opportunities. The article is written by By Etienne Nel (Co-founder and CEO of ZAR X South Africa) and to read full article, please download by clicking: INTO AFRICA PUBLICATION: AUGUST 2018 EDITION.