The calls were made in Mangochi during Financial Market Dealers Association (FIMDA) 2018 Annual Lakeshore Conference. Key note speaker for the conference, Gabi Afram, Lead Financial Sector Economist for the World Bank said there’s need to catalyse long term finance for Africa’s development needs. He cited the country’s case where there’s a big mismatch as having growing pension funds with few investible instruments on the capital market.
He observed that since the introduction of mandatory pension scheme in 2011, pension funds contributions inflows stand at K50 billion annually and the figure is expected to rise with an expected K14 billion from Government through the Public Sector Pension Scheme (PSPS). He was quick to notice that such funds meet less investible instruments hence the call to deepen the capital market.
“Though am new to Malawi but I have observed that the capital market is small, actually the market capitalization is less than 10% of the GDP and the number of issuers is still on the lower side. What needs to be done is to incentivise issuers to come to the market and that means we have to look at the supply side the private sector is it really coming to the capital market? If not why? Then we address the concerns. Some of the concerns could be related to legislation, registration processes, taxation and treatment of investors’ rights. So when we do a detailed analysis we can find out what needs to be done to unlock the capital market in Malawi,” said Afram.
Commenting on a number of cases presenters were highlighting during the conference, FIMDA’s President, Grey Kazima said the financial market in Malawi has been evolving overtime and in line with this year’s theme the market has been trying to safeguard its current position and devise strategies for growth.
Grey Kazima, President, FIMDA
“We would like to hold on to our current position we don’t want to slump and then we find the best alternatives to forge ahead as we continue deepening financial markets in Malawi. One key aspect is the people piece. If we talk of limited financial instruments in Malawi we have also to look on the other side, do we have the expertise? So we have gone ahead in enhancing certification of dealers in Malawi. If we have better trained dealers then we have the needed expertise and innovation. You may not be creative enough to come up with instruments in an area you are not an expert. For the past two years we have embarked on training the dealers and now we have over 42 certified dealers across the financial market in Malawi. We hope this will enhance innovation as we search for more financial instruments,” remarked Kazima.
He further articulated achievements FIMDA has attained while at the helm of the organization.
He said, “Two years at the helm of FIMDA we have managed to establish a secretariat where all administrative issues for the association are done, as earlier alluded to we have enhanced training of personnel in our dealer rooms now we have over 42 certified dealers and we have managed to market FIMDA beyond the borders. We still maintain the close relationship with our partner Thomson Reuters who supports us with financial trainings and for the first time ever, FIMDA has secured K3 million funding from Standard Bank towards this conference.”
Participants to the conference
During the conference Thomson Reuters articulated on the need for a paradigm shift on corporate communications. Its presentation indicated that instant communication applications need to be embraced as globally they have changed the landscape on corporate communications. Clients need quick responses and traditional methods are fast waning.
This year’s conference is being held under the theme: Sustaining a sound financial market, the case for Malawi.
