According to a report compiled by Absa, the operator of Barclays Bank Africa franchise, Uganda’s Capital Market has seen tremendous growth over the years. It now scores highly in key sectors like trade and settlements automation.
While presenting the Absa Africa Financial Index 2018 report in Kampala on Tuesday, January 22. David Arthur Wandera the Barclays head of markets said Uganda’s capital markets was ranked ninth out of the 20 in their report; despite its low turnover.
Uganda’s capital market has just 17 listed firms on the entire stock exchange with a market capitalization of just Shs 22 trillion. Something that has been a huge challenge to the capital market’s growth curve and participation has all along been a privilege to the elite and big corporations.
The market has also been experiencing long droughts of initial public offerings and currently only has nine locally listed firms. It also has eight cross-listing, all of which are from Kenya.
The Absa report recommends government providing incentives to local companies to list so as to increase the market depth. Uganda needs to be more innovative in order to increase the capital markets product portfolio and create diversity. The market currently offers three instruments; government bonds, corporate bonds, and share sell. That is why it is locking out more participation and lagging behind other capital markets in Africa.
The report placed the capital markets of South Africa, Nigeria, Mauritius, Namibia, Egypt, and Kenya ahead of Uganda.
