SponsoredMauritius, Namibia and Botswana may be favoured holiday destinations, but they don’t often come to mind as leading financial markets destinations in Africa.
Absa’s report on the index notes that the market depth of most countries deteriorated this year as the Covid-19 pandemic negatively affected market capitalisation and activity. But while the health and economic issues arising from the pandemic have been the dominant factor this year, the focus will now shift to recovering from the pandemic.
Other sustainability initiatives, especially in green finance, gained momentum with Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt issuing sovereign green bonds over the past year while SA’s JSE decided to expand its green bond segment into a sustainability division, which will include green, social and sustainability bonds. Rwanda is establishing a green investment bank, while Uganda plans to develop a post-disaster environmental restoration fund.
The report notes that early this year, the Stock Exchange of Mauritius opened up its market to international central securities depositories such as Euroclear and Clearstream, allowing foreign investors who invest in debt securities, Eurobonds and exchange traded funds to transfer these securities directly via the depositories to other investors.Namibia scored the best out of all the countries measured for the capacity for its local investors to invest in its financial markets.