Meeting last week in Accra, capital of Ghana, the ECOWAS Capital Markets Integration Council plans to bring the interconnection of the various West African stock exchanges to completion following a process split into three stages. The work of the meeting consisted in the validation and adoption of the texts governing the second phase of the project for the Integration of ECOWAS Stock Exchanges.

The first phase of the ECOWAS Stock Exchanges Integration project, called sponsored access, allows the intervention of a stock exchange company on another Community market through the sponsorship of a local stock exchange company. The second phase will lead to the creation of regional brokers. It will allow the issuance of a common passport to brokerage firms with the possibility of intervening directly on Community markets without sponsorship. Finally, the third phase of the integration process should ultimately lead to the establishment of a common listing platform.