Introduction

Despite their potential in driving development, Africa’s capital markets remain underdeveloped. They are narrow and illiquid, with few listed and tradable securities, too few issuers, investors, intermediaries and a lack of financial product diversity, often dominated by government bond markets.

In response to the challenges that African capital markets face, FSD Africa has been providing technical assistance to regulators since 2016, particularly by assisting in strengthening regulatory frameworks and through capacity building. This learning brief presents some key lessons from the some of  FSD Africa regulatory efforts on strengthening capital markets in Africa.