Press Release

Now in its third year, the Absa Africa Financial Markets Index evaluates financial market development in 20 countries across the African continent and the improvements show the progress being made within the financial markets.

Apart from the progress shown in the overall score, the biggest improvement was in ‘legality and enforceability of standard financial markets master agreements’, where the average score jumped to 55 from 47.

‘The steady improvement across African countries is partly a testament to the impact that our Index is having across the continent,’ says George Asante, Head of Global Markets for Absa Regional Operations. ‘The Index is putting the right level of peer pressure on policy makers across Africa and we are seeing a concerted effort to react to the findings. The Index is becoming a powerful barometer for policy makers and playing a role in building an Africa which is able to fund itself.’ An excellent example of this is Ethiopia, which announced plans to launch a stock exchange in 2020, a sure sign of the significant potential for improvement in the coming year.

We welcome these vital signs of improvement in several African countries,’ says David Marsh, chairman of OMFIF. ‘The launch of new products or regulatory improvements prove that the African continent is moving in the right direction, and our index is now a piece of important evidence for tracking progress in the region’. 

For more visit >> https://www.absa.co.za/corporate-and-investment-banking/news-and-events/events/absa-africa-financial-markets-index1/