After its first two forays into wooing foreign investors in South Africa, New York and London in 2015 and 2018, the BRVM Investment Days roadshow returned to Johannesburg from 7 May to 8, for two days of strategic dialogue on investment opportunities in West Africa, hosted by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Fast becoming a fixture on the international investment agenda, the BRVM Investment Days provides not only a detailed deep-dive into the West African business and investment landscape but also rare opportunities to engage in meaningful discussion with high-level government officials and leading regional authorities.
This year, the BRVM delegation, led by BRVM CEO Dr Edoh Kossi Amenounve and Chairman Dr Parfait Kouassi, was joined by top WAEMU officials and executives from various finance and investment institutions. These include Mr Badanam Patoki, President of the Financial Markets Authority of the West African Monetary Union (AMF-UMOA), Mr Serge Ekué, President of the West African Development Bank (BOAD) and Mr Kouakou Hyppolite Konan, Head of the WAEMU Commission’s Monetary Policy Monitoring Division. As Côte d’Ivoire is the guest country, attendees will hear from Mr Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, Minister of Agriculture, and Adama Coulibaly, Minister of Finance and Budget, along with other high-level ministerial and government officials.
The first day focused on African agricultural commodities exchanges and the launch of Côte d’Ivoire’s BMPA-CI, currently in the last leg of its pilot phase. In the form of a workshop, it featured panel discussions, talks and interactive sessions with sector experts, regulators and authorities.
BMPA-CI is WAEMU’s first Agricultural Commodities Exchange and will serve as the model for setting up the WAEMU Regional Agricultural Commodities Exchange, integrating all eight countries of the sub-region.
Day two delved into regional investment opportunities, offering valuable insight into the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) capital markets.
Investor sessions will focued on the WAEMU economic perspective, market progress, and the business and investment outlook for the BRVM markets, with a focus on Côte d’Ivoire.
Dr Edoh Kossi Amenounve used the opportunity to talk about the BRVM’s recent partnership with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) to strengthen collaboration on stock market capacity-building and facilitate access to green, social and sustainability (GSS) bonds in francophone West African countries, as well as access to climate finance and green investment.
The BMPA-CI sponsored this year’s Investment Days, along with other leading lights from the African capital, investment and media landscape, including West Africa’s Sonatel, Kaydan Asset Management, SA2IF, Capital Markets Africa, BRVM TV, Africa.com, CFA Society Africa and Capital Markets in Africa.
The BRVM includes listed equities and bonds across all major sectors, including banks, telecommunications, transportation, electricity, agribusiness, oil and gas, consumer goods and more and is now the fifth largest stock exchange in Africa with a market capitalisation of US$12.861 billion. Economic activity within the WAEMU remains dynamic, with value-added growth across all sectors.
• The BRVM is an economic, political, institutional and technical success
• It is the only stock exchange in the world shared by several countries, fully electronic and fully integrated
• The BRVM will handle additional government privatisations or asset sales as they are announced over time. This activity will increase the market capitalisation and free float of listed equities
The distribution of assets between the Equity and the Bond market is:
• Equity market capitalisation: XOF 7,966.96 billion at year-end 2023 (US$12.7 billion)
• Bond market capitalisation: XOF 10,302.28 billion at year-end 2023 (US$16.5 billion)
• The value traded represents XOF 396.45 billion in 2023 (US$0.634 billion)
After achieving record levels of production over a long period of time, Côte d’Ivoire’s agricultural sector is poised for a new phase of growth. Fresh transformational initiatives are essential for the sector to realise this growth potential. Launched in 2023 to provide the country with a world-class organised market and innovative solutions to the challenges of its agricultural sector, the Côte d’Ivoire Agricultural Commodities Exchange (BMPA-CI) is currently in the phase of establishing the legal, institutional, and operational framework. This includes laying the groundwork for market participant training, trader accreditation, tech platform acquisition, marketing and communication strategies, quality standard schemes and contract standardisation, including the Warehouse Receipt.
Established and implemented by the BRVM, which is executing the pilot phase, the BMPA-CI is set to start trading before the end of 2024.
The ambition of BMPA-CI is to organise a reliable market for products, prove transparency in pricing while correcting current market distortions, stimulate production, streamline the movement of agricultural products, improve access to finance and income for producers, and restructure the agricultural sector through the promotion of fair trade.
