East African Securities Exchange Association (EASA) has agreed on a technology platform to integrate trade in the region.
EASA Chairman Chris Mwebesa said the exchanges could start trading through Smart-Order-Routing System, expected to involve the agents and clients more by May next year.
He said the request for proposals would be ready in November with the project being implemented within three to six months thereafter.
Mr Mwebesa, who is also the Nairobi Stock Exchange chief executive, was briefing the media after a meeting of CEOs who are members of the Association, in Nairobi.
Also present were Simon Rutega, Chief Executive, Uganda Securities Exchange and Jonathan Njau, Chief Executive Officer, Dar-es-Salaam Stock Exchange.
Others were the Executive Director, Capital Markets Advisory Council, Rwanda, and Rose Mambo, Chief Executive of the Central Depository and Settlement Corporation.
Efficient system
Mwebesa said the system would be more efficient and unhindered by the foreign exchange regimes in individual countries. He said the integration model would allow market participants in the EAC’s exchanges to trade in the four markets of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.
The integration of the Exchanges, he added, would benefit the region through consolidation of market liquidity and increasing visibility of EAC’s capital markets to foreign investors, hence attracting capital inflows.
It would also offer single access point to capital and liquidity across the markets and make cross-border trading more efficient. Mwebesa also said the stock market would undergo a major transformation with the launch of a Securities Industry Training Institute to be headquartered in Kampala, Uganda.
Tanzania policies
Njau said policies put in place by the Tanzania government, had hindered nationals from EAC member states from participating in its initial public offers.
The EASA meeting discussed the progress in the Securities Industry Training Institute, a regional capacity building centre.
Initial pilot programmes are currently rolling out, with two already carried out in Kampala, Uganda and Nairobi, Kenya and the next to be in Kigali, Rwanda and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
