The Capital Markets Advisory Council (CMAC), an organisation responsible for the development and regulation of capital markets in Rwanda, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) is developing a capital markets degree programme.

Once complete, the programme will be introduced in all professional universities offering business studies. The course is aimed at protecting investors through public education and also equipping Rwandans with knowledge concerning the financial products.

"The curriculum is not yet fully developed but we are developing areas of corporation with universities and the Ministry of Education is involved in the process of public awareness and dissemination of capital markets information,” said Olivier Kamanzi, Executive Deputy Director of CMAC.

In order to widen the knowledge of financial assets in the country, the capital markets regulators are also planning to rollout the market programme in high school.

"Our biggest challenge is the lack of skilled people in this sector. It is why we are working with the Rwandan diaspora to extend their expertise to the Rwandese whom we want to own this sector,” said Kamanzi. 

The capital market, which was launched in January 2008, is yet to receive equity stocks on the Rwanda Over The Counter (ROTC) market.

The bourse has listed three treasury bonds and one corporate bond, attracting Rwf634 million in 50 deals on the secondary market and Rwf15.25 billion on the primary market.

Management expects government to list some shares in its parastals but it (CMAC) does not expect private companies to come on board soon, because of the challenge of governance practices.

"Most firms in the private sector that have been doing their accounts have only been doing it for purposes of taxation. But if you want to go public, the level of disclosure is much more,” said Robert Mathu, the executive Director of CMAC. 

The capital markets blue print states that, "There is immediate disclosure of any information that is reasonably expected to have a material effect on the market activity and the prices of the listed securities.”

Mathu said that for taxation, companies just concentrate on numbers. "But that is not enough for a company going public; the levels of disclosure must be higher. So we are doing public education and creating awareness among these businesses so that they are able to adopt proper practices to prepare themselves and go an extra mile in terms of disclosure.”

He said that the recently gazetted company act will play a major role in the development of the capital market and business in general.

According to Mathu, the company Act is the mother law of business because everything else about business in the country will revolve around it.

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