SEC launches plan for robust capital market

Sat, 03 Dec 2016 11:01:11 +0000

A STRATEGIC plan for the period 2015-2018 whose focus is to develop a robust capital market in Zambia by improving liquidity in the markets has been developed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Capital markets are part of a financial system concerned with raising capital by dealing in shares, bonds and other long-term investments.

SEC acting secretary and chief executive, Diana Sichone, said the commission intended to improve the market by implementing distinctive, interrelated and mutually supportive objectives. Speaking at a media briefing in Lusaka, Ms Sichone explained that SEC would encourage and facilitate the development and diversification of capital market products and financial instruments. “This is in a bid to grow the Zambian capital market and thus offer a wider selection of investment instruments. It will also optimise market transaction costs.

“In general, this will ensure that the capital market contributes to the reduction in the cost of doing business in Zambia,” she said. She also said SEC intended to enhance investor protection within the Zambian capital market. Ms Sichone said this was one of the core mandates of the commission. “The above identified goals and activities are expected to help increase the number of investors and issues through awareness and building market confidence.

“However, the achievement of these aims and objectives will only be possible with the availability of the required resources,” she said. Meanwhile, Ms Sichone said the market experienced a lot of activities in 2016 in form of takeovers and mergers as well as rights issues. She said some of the transactions that took place as registered by the SEC were the merger of Lafarge South Africa and Holcim which had effect on Lafarge Zambia Plc in terms of control of the voting rights as it owned 75 percent of the shares in the company. Ms Sichone also said Investrust embarked on a capital raising exercise whose purpose was to raise K40 million to be applied towards attaining the minimum regulatory capital requirements for locally owned Zambian commercial banks.