University students trained on investing in stocks and capital markets
Rwanda Stock Exchange (RSE) has relaxed some of its requirements for a company to list on the local bourse as a way of encouraging more small and medium businesses to contribute to national growth.
Since its launch in 2011, RSE has required local major businesses to raise at least an initial capital of Rwf500million as one of the requirements for a business to trade its shares.
This has seen about eight companies currently trading on the bourse with Kenyan based entities dominating the counters- Kenya Commercial Bank, Equity Group Rwanda, Uchumi supermarket, and Nation Media Group.
Rwandan companies include Bank of Kigali (BK) Bralirwa (BLR), and new entrants Crystal Telecoms (CTL) and I&M Bank Rwanda (IMR).
“By relaxing the requirement, this year, we are planning on launching the small and medium market segment to allow more companies to trade on the exchange,” Celestin Rwabukumba, the CEO of RSE told KTPress in an exclusive interview today.
This means that companies with small capital will be able to float their shares on the stocks and tap into the long term cash making and investment strategy that currently needs to see more Rwandans learning how to make money in different forms.
According to Rwabukumba, at least 100 private firms are targeted in a three months campaign (starting now) which will end with a climax of launching the SME listing forum before April this year.
The companies don’t have to have a lot of initial capital but enlist with more financial benefits of making money in a smart way.
“Some of the big companies here (on the bourse) started with a minimal capital and have grown over the years. This platform will also have chance of learning how to mitigate their initial capital and training on financial management so as to make money in future,” Rwabukumba said.
Last year’s national savings week views show that 12 years on more Rwandans have a thirst of knowing how Rwanda stock exchange (RSE) market operates.
Some students from College of Agriculture, Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (CAVM) in Musanze are already benefiting from stocks.
After participating in a Capital Markets Authority university challenges, they are silently making lump sums of money after reinvesting their competition prize money on the stock through credible brokers.
Currently, over 86% of Rwandans save compared to 71% in 2012. This has seen the number of deposit accounts increase from 1, 736, 203 in June 2016 to 1,871, 858 in June 2017 as number of borrowers dropped from 299,498 to 261,871 in the same period.
Savings collected compared to withdrawals within the period indicate that Rwandans managed to spare over Rwf129 million in 2017 compared to Rwf128 million in 2016.
In the meantime, the local bourse (shares and index) remained constant to close at 134.97 and 133.42 respectively.
