My 2010 New Year’s wish for ASEA

Published on 01 January 2010 by AfricanisCool in For investors, For listed companies, For regulators

The following extracts from the 2009 ASEA conference in Abuja from This Day, a newspaper in Nigeria, illustrate that:

ASEA needs a proper vision;
ASEA needs resources and leadership;
African markets will not grow until regulators facilitate that growth through actions;
Markets exist for the benefit of listed companies and investors not the other way around; and
Oft-repeated annual clichés do not build markets; and finally
ASEA has not achieved anything significant.

I have taken the text out of This Day’s article ( a Nigerian newspaper) and added my 2010 New Year’s wish in the form of narrative that I would liked to hear from ASEA 2010 conference (where-ever that may be).

Here goes:-

What was said in 2009: “Regulations must be strong, enforcement efficient and effective while investor education must also be given priority to enhance market competitiveness.”

What I would like to hear in 2010: “Through the studies undertaken by our A, B C members during the year we have identified the following opportunities to improve enforcement and investor education: X, Y and Z. ASEA markets have agreed to implement A, B and C of these before next years conference. The person responsible for this is Mr X of Y stock exchange.

What was said in 2009: “For African securities exchanges to be strengthened and attract desired patronage, they should adopt globally accepted disclosure mechanism such as International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and high corporate governance standards.”

What I would like to hear in 2010: “For African securities exchanges to be strengthened and attract desired patronage, they should be responsive to the needs to investors and listed companies. An online African wide consultation and feedback process will commence on 1 January 1 2010 and ending 30 September 2010 with results and recommendations being submitted to ASEA board prior to the next board meeting. US$X00 has been set aside for an independent third party to manage this process. The person and exchange responsible for the supervision of this process is Mr Smith of Y exchange.

What was said in 2009: “Demutualisation will leads (sic) to enhanced corporate governance practices and should be a priority for African stock exchanges.”

What I would like to hear in 2010: “Demutualisation is being considered by the following markets, A, B and C. The positive impact of demutualization for investment promotion prospects, investor responsiveness and listed companies are as follows: A, B and C. You may contact Mr X of the Y stock exchange if you have any information requirements.

What was said in 2009: “Risk management procedures will be crucial to developing African markets”

What I would like to hear in 2010: “Through the studies undertaken by our A, B C members during the year we have identified the following opportunities to improve risk management procedures: X, Y and Z. ASEA markets have agreed to implement A, B and C of these before next year’s conference. The person responsible for monitoring this is Mr X of Y stock exchange.

What was said in 2009: “Liquidity is still an issue in Africa, due to small floats and small size of many listed equities.”

What I would like to hear in 2010: “The following statistics on the liquidity of all ASEA member markets show improvement over the previous year. Many thanks to Mr Smith of X market in compiling this information. ASEA encourages its members to adopt the following mechanisms to improve liquidity and float sizes: A, B and C. A file of tips to do this is available for download on our website.

What was said in 2009: “The establishment of a strong investment banking industry and usage of mutual fund (sic) to deepen the market is recommended.”

What I would like to hear in 2010: “This is a summary of the initiatives of each of the ASEA exchanges to promote and deepen their market structures: A, B and C. The delegates agreed that the following areas: A, B, C have the greatest impact and should be adopted in 2010. The person and exchange responsible for this feedback is (). The ASEA strategic plan for 2010 – 1015 is available to download here.

What was said in 2009: “Efforts should be made to list the large companies that are currently outside the markets via legislation especially telecoms and oil and gas.”

What I would like to hear in 2010: “The following efforts were made to make listing more attractive on our stock exchanges: by category. ASEA agreed that the single biggest area to promote listings is in X area.” The ASEA strategic plan for 2010 – 1015 is available to download here.

What was said in 2009: “There must be conscious efforts to attract and sustain foreign investments into Africa since prospects for long-term investments abound on the continent.”

What I would like to hear in 2010: “Since prospects for long-term investments abound on the continent and information is the life blood of markets ASEA has, through a consultative process with market players from X date to Y date and managed by Z independent consultancy, adopted minimum voluntary standards of information dissemination for its listed companies. ASEA concluded that Africa’s long term opportunities cannot be appraised as such without adequate information.”

What was said in 2009: “There was need for African exchanges to integrate their markets for improved liquidity, access to greater capital pools, and efficient operations.

What I would like to hear in 2010: “The prospects for market integration will not be mentioned ever again until A,B,C,D,E and F markets address the basics of exchange control, equality of investor treatment and information availability. The attached annual report, kindly prepared by H exchange, is a succinct summary of the restrictive exchange rate regimes adopted by ASEA member countries.

What was said in 2009: “The adoption of compact technology should be a way of reducing the cost of acquisition as this will enhance the integration of trading platforms.”

What I would like to hear in 2010: Something that is coherent.

What was said in 2009: “The participants identified implementation capacity as a major constraint to executing large capital projects – and therefore sees Private Public Partnership (PPP) as the future of infrastructure development in Africa.”

What I would like hear in 2010: “ASEA recognises that it cannot achieve its objectives on its own and will first achieve A, B and C in order to ensure that it becomes a credible enough organisation for it to partner with private sector resources.

These are my New Year wishes for ASEA and African stock exchanges.

Happy New Year!!!

African Investor Relations