The Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC and its counterpart from Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of the West Africa Securities Regulators Association.
The Director-General, SEC, Munir Gwazo, signed on behalf of the commission while the DG, SEC, Ghana, Dr. Adu Antwi, and the Secretary General, Counseil Regional De L’Epargne Publique Et Des Marchès Financiers, Mory Soumahoro, signed on behalf of their respective countries.
The agreement, according to Gwarzo, who spoke shortly after the signing, will foster the integration of capital markets within the region.
He said the MoU had spelt out what needed to be done by regulators within the sub-region in order to achieve the objectives of the association.
For instance, he said under the pact, three sub committees would be set up to consider the legal and regulatory frameworks of various capital market jurisdictions within the region with a view to harmonising the different aspects of capital market regulation.
Other aspects to be considered by the committee are the areas of risk management and market development.
He said, “For quite a while we have been thinking of how the regulators can come together to form an association so that we can support the integration of the capital market within the West African Region.
“There are a lot of milestones, like we said one of the key issues in the MoU is the issue of sharing of information, it is very key.
“This is information driven market. So once you do not have an opportunity to share information it means you can’t police this market.
“We have very robust criteria within the MoU, which will enhance the sharing of information. Another thing we highlighted is the setting up of committees we have three sub technical committees.
“One will look at the legal and regulatory framework because in our various jurisdictions, we all have our various laws and our own rules and regulations; so we look at how we can harmonise the commonalities in these our rules and regulations.”
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