Dossiers

Learning about finance starts in school

Does Microinsurance really get to the people? How can students reach a higher level of Financial Literacy?And how can Access to Finance be improved? Read more in the multimedia dossiers.

Harmonistion, a possible solution to stock markets of the CEMAC region

 

The CEMAC Community Regulatory Instrument (COSUMAF) settles for simultaneous operations of the Douala Stock Exchange (DSX) and the Stock market of the Sub region (BVMAC) to promote economic development.

   

The development of stock markets of the Economic Community of Central African States, (CEMAC) has always been retarded, mainly because of the lack of integration and dynamism of their financial markets. 10 years after both stock markets( BVMAC and DSX) went operational the six Central African States are yet to benefit from the financial operations, because of the duplication of expenses, poor allocation of resources, different operation procedures, competition, difficulties of accessing accounting and financial information and complex access to markets which greatly contributed in scaring investors. On the basis of statistics published by the CEMAC Community Regulatory Instrument, the present capital of the regional financial market stands at only 131.9Billion FCA, 10 years later. (The capital of Cameroon’s Douala stock Exchange is 25.5billion and the sub-regional Stock market in Gabon is 157.4billion FCA).  

In a 2day meeting organized by COSUMAF, the CEMAC Community Regulatory Instrument, under the theme, “The development of the financial market in Central Africa”, the college of financial regulators of the sub region traced a new perspective to harmonize the operations of the BVMAC and Douala stock Exchange. Alexandre Gandou, the president of COSUMAF, explains that the bringing together of both stock markets will re-establish trust. He says, “It is not all about promoting one of the stock markets and suppressing the other. COSUMAF will makes sure that both of them are efficient and it should be a place where Cameroonian companies, the Congolese, Gabonese businessmen increase funds to finance growth, in order to give sense to our integration.”The college of regulators resolved to consolidate both stock markets by harmonizing operation procedures.

In spite of all the lofty recommendations during the seating, some financial and economic experts remain very skeptical about the progress of financial markets because of the absence of political will. According to some participants at the conference, quotations in both markets will only increase if the governments of Cameroon and Gabon settle their decade old political differences that arose during the creation of the stock markets.

                                                                                                                                                   Jessie Bawak

 

Prossy Nandudu 280909

Bank of Uganda is advising the public against gift circles and Pyramid schemes.

The schemes claim to offer business opportunities that can enrich those who participate.

 Those who join are required to pay five thousand shillings into a series of bank accounts; in return each new member expects to receive payment from new members.

These eventually run out of new members. When this happens, some members are not paid but the owners still benefit.

 Executive director Supervision at Bank of Uganda, Justine Bagyenda says similar schemes collapsed in 2003 with many people loosing their money.

 She adds that as the central bank, they will continue freezing bank accounts of such institutions

FRIDAY WEARS

Doesn’t it interest you how suddenly the sale of  locally made textiles have gained grounds in the market? Not too long a ago one could hardly find Ghanaians especially ladies in local prints in church not even to talk of parties. It was almost as if local cloths were only made for our old ladies. I guess that was because our dear young Ghanaians including myself thought we were living in a modern world. Of course with all the advanced and sophisticated technologies everywhere now, there is no doubt we’re living in a globalised world. But does the fact that we’re living in a modern world mean we should forget every perculier feature that projects our African values including our fashion? Certainly not! Fortunately there has been a miraculous change in the Ghanaian fashion trend. Lots of Ghanaians are beginning to show great interest in the local textiles.Through the initiative of our former president, John Agyekum Kufuor, on Fridays,almost every worker puts on an African wear popularly known as “Friday Wear”. Today, friday wear is not only common to the Ghanian worker but to students as well. Visit the various campuses in Ghana and you will be amazed to see how students galantly walk about in beautifully designed friday wears.

I really will like to congratulate Ghanaians and encourage that greater interest should be shown in local textiles because as I walked along the busy streets of Osu today, I realised that the number of shops that were filled with already made African wear were just uncountable.

This indicates that several business opportunities have been opened to many Ghanaians and the Ghanaian economy is being boosted as well.

MARGARET ODURO

FINANCIAL EXPERTS TO NOTE

Its amazing how quick humanity forget lessons that are meant to be learnt through events that we encounter. The world financial leaders must indeed show remorse for failing the world in the first place and be moderate and selfless in their decision making. Taking a cue from President Barak Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s advice, it should be the best reasoning to think over. Besides a failure in one part of the world now means the entire world must suffer, something so inevitable with the continious global villaging process. My point, let those in charge of the rest of us be mindful of our needs too and make room for our survival too. The recession might be ending but lets give it the space to settle down properly before we zoom in to events that brought it about.

Ekuba Quarmine