CMA moves to strengthen capacity of capital market players

The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) invited investment advisors from Uganda and the United States to train its employees and market players on how to implement the capital market legal framework. In a ten day training exercise that began on Monday, the group of expatriates met with investors, brokers, bankers and other players to discuss the best implementation approach as well as each player’s rights and obligations. Speaking in a session yesterday, Japheth Kato, the chief executive of CMA-Uganda, addressed key issues including the governance structure of the authority, stressing the importance of its independence. “The market’s regulatory body and its internal auditors must be reasonably independent and their decisions should not be interfered with by the board of directors and other external factors,” Kato said. “However, it must be transparent, uphold integrity and be accountable to the stakeholders, government and donors.” Robert Mathu, the chief executive of CMA, said that to improve efficiency of the authority’s board of directors, the new framework details a scaling down of representatives from 11 to seven. He added that: “The independence of CMA is deeply spelt out in the new law and will be achieved through its implementation. Since the authority relies on government funding, we must maintain a high level of accountability while we ensure that the market develops.” Sally Buxton, a finance expert from Cadogan Financial, a US based investment advisory firm, said that CMA must collaborate with regional and global agencies to exercise its power considering the progress of regional integration. “The Rwanda capital market must formalise relationships with regional markets; it should also do so with other financial sector regulators in the country such as banking, insurance and pension,” she said. Currently, statistics from the Ministry of Finance indicate that the Bralirwa IPO is the most successful in the market with a total subscription of 274 per cent, translating into an oversubscription of 174 per cent, with the number of applicants standing at 3,939 of which 3,088 were Rwandan. Ends

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CMA moves to strengthen capacity of capital market players