The African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) held last week in partnership with the Casablanca Stock Exchange its 24th edition of the ASEA annual conferences. In an interview granted to the news site ''Aujourd'hui le Maroc'', Edoh Kossi Amenounve discusses the highlights of these two days of exchanges and delivers his vision of a successful African financial market.

The Annual Conference brings together the entire ecosystem of the continent's capital markets to discuss, for two days, the evolution and prospects of our stock exchanges and market infrastructures, but also their role in financing the economies of our countries. . According to Edoh Kossi Amenounve, investor protection needs to be strengthened and greater synergy developed between market players, including governments, regulators, etc. He points out that African stock markets lack the depth to deal with major operations, which is pushing states and several large companies to go outside. By way of illustration, African issues on the Eurobond market in the first quarter of 2021 amounted to more than 135 billion dollars and 112 African companies are listed on the London Stock Exchange. Thus, he informs, apart from South Africa, low liquidity is a common feature of most African stock exchanges. Indeed, they posted an average liquidity ratio of 6.30% in 2020.

To improve liquidity, Edoh Kossi Amenounve proposes the privatization of public entities and the integration of stock exchanges in Africa. In this regard, he underlined the initiatives underway on the continent, namely the West African Capital Markets Integration Project (WACMIC), the consolidation of East African Stock Exchanges East or Southern Africa. There is also the plan to interconnect stock exchanges on a continental scale. This project is jointly piloted by the African Development Bank and the Association of African Stock Exchanges (ASEA).