We do not know much about the African retail, or indeed institutional shareholder. Not many studies have been carried out in Africa. They should be.
In the USA studies into retail investors have shown high degrees of investor ignorance of even the most basic issues related to equity ownership. A common report in more than half of respondents to these studies is that the annual reports and other documents are “too complicated” to understand. No doubt the same issues apply to African investors, possibly on a greater scale.
I thought I would post access to the Plain English Handbook online. It’s a handbook prepared by the SEC’s Nancy M Smith, the Director, Office of Investor Education and Assistance, with many individuals and organizations at the SEC and in the private sector.
The handbook shows how you can use well-established techniques for writing in plain English to create clearer and more informative documents. Of course, when drafting a document for filing with regulators it needs to meet all legal requirements.
Download it here