NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 6 – East African Securities Regulatory Authorities have plans to establish a Capital Markets Advisory Centre to assist Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in access to capital.
The Capital Markets Advisory Centre will provide technical support to SMEs that would want and are able to access private and public market- based finance.
The institution will focus offering support on pre-listing, listing and post-listing.
“SMEs need to be supported to access alternative forms of long term capital thereby reducing their dependence on short term bank financing in order to spur their growth and boost employment. However, most SMEs in the region cannot afford technical services like legal and corporate restructuring,” the regulatory authorities note.
The regulators have also plans to fully implement risk-based supervision; regional capacity building programmes through partnership with the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment to ensure certification of industry players.
The institution also plans to develop case studies to facilitate capacity-building among regulators ensuring regulatory and market infrastructure responsiveness to technological changes especially in the Fintech (Financial Technology) space.
The Consultative Committee further noted the positive progress being made towards harmonization of the legal and regulatory framework for capital markets in the EAC.
