West African Monetary Union: African Development Bank Group extends $400,000 grant for development of regional financial markets infrastructure

The African Development Bank Group has approved $400,000 in grant funding for technical assistance to support automation of securities issuance by the West African Economic and Monetary Union’s Regional Financial Market.

The grant will be sourced from the multi-donor Capital Markets Development Trust Fund, which is administered by the African Development Bank and supported by the Ministry of Finance of Luxembourg and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Cooperation of the Netherlands.

The grant will fund technical assistance to set up a digital platform, hosted by the Dépositaire Central/Banque de Règlement, to offer market stakeholders ready access to real-time securities data. It will also enable the automation of securities subscription and help reduce the holding period preceding subscription allocations and registration. The Dépositaire Central/Banque de Règlement serves as the settlement bank for the eight-member monetary bloc.

“We are delighted for this first partnership with the Dépositaire Central/Banque de Règlement, after the Bank’s earlier project to support the development of financial markets in the West African Economic and Monetary Union,” said Ahmed Attout, Manager of the African Development Bank’s capital markets development division. “The Bank support is expected to foster a world class regional trading platform and provides the necessary financial infrastructure for a deeper domestic resources mobilization.”

“We share with the African Development Bank a common desire to work to deepen and widen access to financial services and thus pursue our efforts to develop the market towards better collection of savings and the facilitation of transactions on the Regional Financial Market,” said Mr. Birahim Diouf, Deputy CEO of the Dépositaire Central/Banque de Règlement. “This project to digitize primary market issuance on the Regional Financial Market makes it possible to be even closer to investors by offering effective solutions adapted to their expectations and requirements.”

The Regional Financial Market is a key component of the regional financial system and plays a vital role as a complementary source of local currency and long-term financing for the Monetary Union’s economies.