Kenya to host international financial regulators talks

Kenya is due to host an international conference for capital markets regulators to discuss ways of building capacity of regional markets, the country’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) said on Friday. The 28th Africa and Middle East Regional Committee (AMERC) Meeting and Conference of International Organization of Securities Commission (IOSCO) will kicked off in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa from Feb. 23 to Feb. 24. “At CMA we are proud to host the international capital markets meeting and conference, which we see as an invaluable opportunity to discuss pertinent capital market issues,” CMA Chief Executive Stella Kilonzo said in a statement released in Nairobi. The conference resolved to give support to help markets develop strong infrastructure, more investor education, good corporate governance and the capacity to enforce market rules and regulations. “We expect the conference, which seeks to discuss regional co- operation strategies for enhancing capital markets stability, to be a platform to share insights,” she said. Kilonzo said the meeting whose theme is Regional Co-operation for Capital Markets Stability: Harmonization of Regulatory and Policy Frameworks, is a major milestone since its being hosted in Kenya as party of East Africa for the first time. Experts say African markets needed to have very robust trading platforms in place to accommodate expected huge inflows of foreign investments, to encourage more local investments, and to support the rules and regulations that are in place. According to the programme, there will a meeting of AMERC members comprising chief executives of the respective capital market regulators, and chaired by Arunma Oteh, Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria on Feb. 23, followed by a conference on February 24, where cross-cutting capital markets issues will be discussed. The AMERC-member countries that have confirmed participation in the upcoming meeting and conference include; Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Israel, South Africa, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Zambia, Morocco, Malawi, Cameroon, and Ghana. The IOSCO Secretary General based in Spain, the West African Monetary Union, the East African Community Secretary General, and International Finance Corporation/ESMID will also be represented at the meeting. The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), set up in 1983, is the leading international policy forum for securities regulators. The organization’s wide membership regulates more than 95 percent of the world’s securities markets and IOSCO is the world’s most important international cooperative forum for securities regulatory agencies.