East African Community(EAC)

Under the Treaty, for the establishment of the East African Community (EAC), the Partner States of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda set out a bold vision for their eventual unification. The vision of EAC is to have a prosperous, competitive, secure and politically united East Africa. The mission of EAC is to widen and deepen economic, political, social and cultural integration in order to improve the quality of life of the people of East Africa through increased competitiveness, value added production, trade and investment. Operationally, EAC adopted a development strategy to facilitate the implementation of the Treaty in a systematic manner.

East African Securities Exchanges Association(EASEA)

The EAC Strategic Plan contemplates the development of a regional capital market in East Africa by December 2009. EASEA came into being in 2004 after signing of the memorandum of understanding between the EAC exchanges.

The EAC Strategic Plan contemplates the development of a regional capital market in East Africa by December 2009. The EASEA has developed a three year strategic plan for the period 2008 - 2010. The strategic plan aims to:

1. Provide a roadmap for integration of the three markets;
2. Serve as a policy advocacy document;
3. Secure funding from market development partners; and
4. Align the EASEA vision with individual securities exchanges’ corporate plans, EAC individual country strategic visions’, plans and the EAC treaty.

EASEA Members

The three East African Securities Exchanges, namely the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) www.dse.co.tz , Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) www.nse.co.ke and Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) www.use.or.ug have established a working relationship among them in the spirit of integrating and developing capital markets in the East African Community (EAC). The exchanges operate under the umbrella of the East African Securities Exchanges Association (EASEA). The EASEA is a member of the Capital Markets Development Committee (CMDC) of the East African Community (EAC). Recently the Capital Markets Advisory Council (CMAC) www.cmac.org.rw of Rwanda has joined the association.

The SADC Committee of Stock Exchanges(CoSSE)

Background
The SADC Committee of Stock Exchanges was formed in January 1997 as a private sector initiative within the SADC framework. Membership of the Committee is open to all the member countries of the SADC. The Committee meets quarterly.
The members with established exchanges are: South Africa (JSE and BESA), Namibia (NSX), Botswana (BSE), Mauritius (SEM), Mozambique, Swaziland (SSX), Tanzania (DSE), Malawi MSE), Zambia (LuSE) and Zimbabwe (ZSE).
Aims and objectives of the Committee
To achieve this vision the Committee will increase co-operation and links in operations, communications, regulations, technical skills development and other areas between the stock exchanges of Southern African Development Community in order to:

• Maintain and improve market integrity in order to have markets that are fair, efficient and transparent with proper price discovery;
• Increase the liquidity of trading in equities, bonds, derivatives and other financial instruments;
• Enforce legislation and rules and protect market participants and investors;
• Make the SADC securities markets more attractive to local and international investors;
• Raise capital for regional economic development, including developing infrastructure and human resources and raising living standards;
• To improve the operational capacity of SADC stock exchanges;
• To advocate and lobby for private sector led Regional market integration;
• Build cooperation between the SADC stock exchanges and their regulators;
• To establish a forum through which SADC region policy makers can consult the region's existing securities markets before planning further developments within this field.

Policies and strategies which build upon the concepts of harmonization and rationalization of operations will be applied where appropriate. The exchange of information, expertise and experiences will form a significant part of the process.

Conclusion
The strategy of CoSSE remains to keep autonomous national markets and to find ways of using technology, skills-sharing, dual-listings and cross border investments within the SADC to combine forces and generate more capital flows into the region.

African Securities Exchanges Association(ASEA)

About ASEA:

ASEA is a non-profit company limited by guarantee that was found in Kenya on the 13th of November 1993.  www.africansea.org

The association started with Nairobi Stock Exchange as the first member in 1993, followed by Mauritius, Uganda and Dar-es-Salam Stock Exchanges in the nineties.  The association is currently represented by 20 exchanges in 27 African countries.

ASEA Mission Statement:

ASEA provides a forum for mutual communication, exchange of information, cooperation and technological assistance among its members, to facilitate the process of financial integration within the region for the effective mobilization of capital to accelerate economic development of Africa.

ASEA supports members in the establishment of Stock Exchanges and the development of financial instruments. The association also assists in promoting the development of standards of training and professionalism amongst members and other market players, standards of listing, trading and settlement of securities, the products and services of Africa’s capital markets as well as the establishment of a data bank and information system.