The Chief Executive Office of Uganda’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA), Keith Kalyegira has been appointed to chair the Listing Working Group (LWG) of the Africa and Middle-East Regional Committee (AMERC).
AMERC is one of four regional committees constituted by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) to focus on regional issues relating to securities market regulation and market development in the Africa and Middle-East region.
Kalyegira replaces Alexander Williams, former acting Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Ghana, who has been chair of LWG since its establishment.
His appointment follows the recent admission of Uganda as a member of Appendix A of the IOSCO Multi-lateral Memorandum of Understanding, which elevated Uganda to full membership in the international securities standard body.
Kalyegira said his additional role is a great opportunity for our capital markets and Uganda in general.
He said one of the biggest challenges is the need to make capital markets more relevant to the real economy, which he said is largely comprised of small and medium sized enterprises. Currently, Uganda has only eight domestic listings, seven of which were Government divestitures.
“Our capital market has not been as vibrant because we have few listings on the stock exchange, a problem that is also identified in our ten-year Capital Markets Development Master Plan,” Kalyegira said.
“We are aware that other countries have similar challenges and our engagement with them at this level will be an opportunity to address similar challenges in Africa and the Middle East and develop strategies which we can implement as a country to grow our capital markets,” he added.
He added that the lessons picked from other countries will also be applied to drive growth in other areas in the capital markets including listings by introduction, private placements for debt and equity as well as new products such as Real Estate Investment Trusts and Exchange Traded Funds.
AMERC comprises of 25 capital markets regulators from 25 member states with full voting rights, and regulators from twelve associate member states in Africa and the Middle East.
The LWG was established during the 38thAMERC meeting held in Abu Dhabi, UAE in February 2017.
