Though Rwanda has made major strides in socio-economic and financial sector development in recent years, it will require deeper, more liquid capital markets to channel foreign and domestic savings to support the country’s socio-economic growth, Amb Claver Gatete, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, has said.

Gatete was recently speaking at a ‘strategic’ planning meeting hosted by the Capital Markets Authority to initiate the process of developing its 10-year capital market development master plan.

"The 10-year master plan will cement efforts by the CMA to position Rwanda’s capital markets as the preferred financial economic centre for domestic, regional, and international fund flows. It is also expected to position the capital markets to play a pivotal role in mobilising long-term funding to support the development of Rwanda,” he added.

Staci Warden, the CMA chairperson, said capital markets experts from around the world were invited to share lessons on how to develop the local capital market.

"The idea is to create an ecosystem to accelerate and sustain economic growth that leads to more savings and investments via the capital markets,” Warden, who is also the executive director of the Centre for Financial Markets at the Milken Institute, said.

She noted that financial markets help companies raise money to expand, hire more people, and also improve people’s savings and investment potential.

Sunil Benimadhu, the Stock Exchange of Mauritius chief executive officer, hailed the initiative, saying Mauritius was looking forward to a partnership with the local capital market in future.

The three-day roundtable in Rubavu District, Western Province brought together international and regional experts, as well as local officials from the public and private sectors. Renowned capital market experts from 14 countries across the globe – the US, Israel, India, Malaysia, Spain, UK, Netherlands, Uruguay, Mauritius, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Tanzania attended, according to CMA officials.

"The roundtable was unique by design as consultants will now start the process of drafting the master plan with inputs from experts at the meeting,” the Capital Markets Authority said in a statement.

CMA is charged with nurturing wealth by facilitating the development of an orderly, fair, transparent and efficient capital market in the country.

The roundtable was sponsored by Financial Sector Development programme and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.

business@newtimes.co.rw