The Securities and Exchange Commission – SEC has revealed that they are in the process of coming up with a new capital markets master plan that pivots towards coming up with a regulatory framework that supports efforts in finding ways to enable local businesses and SMEs raise capital through for instance private equity and venture capital.
When asked by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT on why Zambia has had fewer companies listing on the Lusaka Securities Exchange – LuSE, SEC Chief Executive Officer Philip Chitalu said the master plan will look into issues like why companies are not listing on the Lusaka Securities and Exchange (LuSE) among others.
“We have actually gone into asking ourselves these same questions, like why are we not seeing many companies listing on LuSE. To this effect, we are now in the process of developing a capital markets master plan which will address most of the issues surrounding the capital markets such as why the companies are not listing on LuSE,” Chitalu said.
He further explained that capital markets are first split into two, the secondary market for bonds trading and the secondary market for equities (shares) trading. SEC therefore supervised or regulates the secondary market for bonds, equities and also the collective investments schemes.
Chitalu told ZBT that the commission and the market at large, is having to rethink and redefine capital markets to include all the things that are happening in the capital markets.
He said these include things like venture capital funds and private equity funds as some of the products that the commission strongly believe can be used to channel funds into Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and other developmental areas.
Chitalu said the commission would concentrate on the entire capital markets space including the green bonds.
“In the last couple of months, we have looked at green bonds; it’s exciting that there is a Ministry that has been dedicated to specifically look at the green economy. We hope that with such a ministry and our objectives of ensuring that capital markets participated in channeling funds to the green economy, it is our hope that the ministry will work with us in fulfilling our objectives as capital markets regulator.
“Basically the green economy as far as we see, it includes investments in areas where the environment is being given positive considerations, so instead of deforestation, we should be talking afforestation, instead of people using charcoal we should be coming up with industries that discourage the use of charcoal, among others,” he said.
