EFFORT aimed at encouraging citizens to participate in capital markets has started yielding results as the number of players continue to increase, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chief Executive Officer CEO Phillip Chitalu has said.
Early this year, President Hakainde Hichilema unveiled Zambia’s first ever 10-year Capital Market Master Plan (CMMP) meant to, among others, spearhead development of green bonds.
And speaking to The Scoop, Mr. Chitalu said that deliberate effort was made to ensure that Zambia’s aspiration of becoming a financial hub that would attract financing, including green bonds, was attained.
He said that currently, there are over 400,000 people participating in the capital market compared to the 300,000 that were there initially.
“In terms of capital market participation, it is going up and what I can safely say is that the awareness campaigns and crusades that were embarked on have started to bear fruits. There are a number of segments within the capital markets. We have the secondary market trading in the Government securities or commonly known as the Government Bonds. The secondary market trade in equity or shares listed on the Lusaka stock exchange and we have participation of savings that are being done by citizens in what we call collective investment schemes.
“We had seen some activities in the corporate bonds which is similar to what the Government does but these are issued by the private companies. So in terms of participation, we are now at 400,000 people participating in the capital markets which is a plus. We started with 300,000 and now we have 400,000,” Mr. Chitalu explained.
He said that despite the achievement made in increasing the number of participants over the years, more effort was needed to ensure that at least 10 percent of the adult population in the country got involved in capital markets.
He explained that once participating numbers in the capital market increased to at least 700,000, Zambia would begin to adequately see the positive role that capital markets played in ensuring that funds were invested for longer terms towards productive sectors.
He said that capital markets were essential for economic development and that like in many other countries, the markets had the potential to make a significant contribution to Zambia’s economic development.