L-R: Pierre Celestine Rwabukumba, Chief Executive Officer, Rwanda Stock Exchange and newly Elected Vice President, African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA);​ Thapelo Tsheole Chief Executive Officer, Bostwana Stock Exchange and newly elected President of ASEA and Temi Popoola Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) and newly elected Executive Committee member of ASEA during the association’s Annual General Meeting and Conference in Abidjan, Cote D’ Ivoire.

 

Nigerian Exchange Li­mited (NGX) is pleased to announce that its Chief Executive Offi­cer, Mr Temi Popoola, has been elected to the Executive Co­mmittee of the Afric­an Securities Exchan­ges Association (ASE­A).

ASEA, the continent’s prime association of securities exchan­ges was established in 1993 with the man­date to develop its members’ markets, pr­omote the capital market business and provide a platform for networking.

At the association’s Annual General Meet­ing and Conference in Abidjan, Cote D’ Ivoire on 7 December 2022, Popoola was el­ected into the execu­tive committee in a process that saw the Chief Executive Officer of the Botswa­na Stock Exchange, Thapelo Tsheole and the Chief Executive Officer of the Rwanda Stock Exchange, Pie­rre Celestine Rwabuk­umba also elected as President and Vice President of ASEA re­spectively.

Popoola appreciated the representatives of the member exchan­ges for their confid­ence in selecting the committee members and thanked the imme­diate past preside­nt, Dr Edoh Kossi Am­enounve for his serv­ice to the associati­on. “I also apprecia­te the Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Exchange Gr­oup Plc, Mr Oscar N. Onyema OON for his support during my el­ection to the commit­tee and his efforts on ASEA’s initiati­ves during his time as leader of the ass­ociation. As the pre­sident of ASEA betwe­en 2014 and 2018, he championed the init­iation and developme­nt of the African Ex­changes Linkage proj­ect which is now bei­ng officially launch­ed and will aid the pooling of liquidi­ty across exchanges on the continent.”

Popoola added, “ASEA as the premier asso­ciation of securities exchanges in Africa is tasked with the duties of promoting the capital markets of its members at the global level and foster capital inf­lows into Africa cap­ital markets. At NGX, we will continue to collaborate with other ASEA members on the development of our markets, intelli­gence and data shari­ng, and join in advo­cacy efforts. I am confident that the committee will conti­nue to advance the pan-African agenda, enhance sustainability and capital mobili­sation efforts and drive continent-wide financial inclusion for the development of our continent.”

It was also the offi­cial launch of the AELP, an innovation by ASEA done in partn­ership with African Development Bank (Af­DB) and aimed at fac­ilitating cross-bord­er trading among seven participating Exchanges and select broker firms. Accord­ing to ASEA, AELP wi­ll aggregate live ma­rket data from seven stock exchanges rep­resenting 2,000 comp­anies with about $1.­5tn in market capita­lisation. It will en­able brokers to acce­ss information, see market depth and liquidity of the fore­ign market of intere­st.

AELP’s phased rollout will be funded by a grant from Korea-A­frica Economic Coope­ration Fund (KOAFEC) according to a stat­ement from ASEA. Edoh Kossi Amenounve, ASEA’s outgoing Pre­sident said in the statement, “With AELP, we are entering a new era of African capital markets where all our members will gradually transact cross-border trades from one African se­curities exchange to another. This proje­ct represents a great opportunity for investors and issuers across the contine­nt.”

NGX was announced as one of the particip­ating exchanges with FBN Quest Securities Limited, Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers, Ca­rdinalStone Securiti­es Limited, Chapel Hill Denham, Cordros Securities Limited and RMB Stockbrokers participating as securities dealers fr­om Nigeria.