Accra to host capital markets conference next month

Come September 14 to 18, 2009, Ghana will host a Regional Capital Markets Conference for Africa and the meeting will bring together gurus from capital markets the world over.

Under the theme ‘Towards effective regulation and development of an efficient capital markets in Africa’, the conference will attract industry experts from the US, UK, South Africa, Ethiopia, Nigeria and from other parts of the world.

Although the meeting is expected to touch on all segments of the capital markets, highly placed on the agenda for discussion will be the topic ‘Commodities Sector in Africa: Opportunities and challenges of developing a viable commodities market in Africa’ to be delivered by Dr Elleni Gabre Madhin, CEO of Ethiopia Commodities Exchange.

The influential CEO of the Ethiopian Commodities Exchange is on record to have resigned from a well paying IMF job to set up a Commodities Exchange in Ethiopia which has transformed the country into a net exporter of grains within a short period of time.

Also on the list of experts to grace the forum will be Dr Robert M. Fisher, a kingpin in the regulation of the financial sector. He is expected to speak on the theme: ‘Challenges of securities regulation in emerging markets’.

Dr Charles Asembri, former Director General of SEC will also be one of the speakers at the conference.

The conference will take a look at current capital markets development issues in Africa, and highlight Regulatory issues in a post financial crises era.

Regulators from the insurance, banking, and securities industry the world-over will participate in the high-profile meeting which will take place at the plush La Palm Beach Hotel in Accra.

The conference to be hosted by Ghana’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also sponsored by USAID.

Ghana’s securities industry regulator has also been given the privileged to host Middle East and African Regulators in a similar conference slated for next year.

The event adds up to Ghana’s emerging status as the leading destination for conferences in Africa, hosting a number of important events crucial to the development of the financial and capital markets.

The GSE in October 2007 hosted the 11th African Securities Exchange Association (ASEA) conference that brought together gurus in the securities industry under the theme; African Capital Markets: The next investment frontier’.

The nation also played host to the 3rd High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness and UNCTAD XII..