On the financial planet, the Covid-19 pandemic spares no one. However, far from the spectacular falls of Western financial centers, West African stock markets are holding steady. Together with his African counterparts, the Managing Director of the Abidjan-based Regional Stock Exchange (BRVM), Edoh Kossi Amenounve, is already preparing for the post-crisis period.

As everywhere else in the world, Africa is facing a double shock, health and economic. By early April 2020, 31 out of 54 countries had closed their borders to curb the coronavirus pandemic, exacerbating economic hardship. Yet, in the midst of a global stock market storm, West African stock markets have limited the damage.

The Regional Stock Exchange (BRVM), created in 1996, has a joint stock exchange coordination mission in eight countries in the region: Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.    Togolese Edoh Kossi Amenounve, is already preparing to support the African economy after the health crisis.

Edoh Kossi Amenounve: We activated our plan to maintain our activity as soon as the first cases of contamination on the continent were confirmed. The particularity of this crisis being its health nature, our first priority was to ensure the safety of staff, by triggering the remote work procedure for non-operational agents before generalizing it to all staff.

Our teams (about sixty people) in charge of listing, monitoring transactions and settlement/delivery, deployed at their homes, have been able to open, administer and close the market since then as if they were at the headquarters of the BRVM.

We have also adjusted the quotation times (9 a.m. to 2 p.m. instead of 3 p.m.) to adapt to the measures taken by the State of Côte d'Ivoire, particularly in terms of curfew. Finally, we have developed a number of communication and awareness tools for all our partners to reassure them of our ability to continue our activities during this period of crisis.

Is there a backup plan for your data?

The BRVM has a backup plan for its data that has been in operation for several years. This system ensures real-time replication of all data including all transactions at a remote relief site from headquarters, including in another State of the Uémoa [West African Economic and Monetary Union, which brings together the eight countries of the BRVM, Editor's note]. It works properly. Since last year, we have also begun work on replicating our data to a cloud. All the necessary investments for this purpose have been made. We will therefore very quickly, by June 2020, switch our backup plan to the cloud, which will ensure accessibility to all data on the market at reduced costs.

What are the reactions of the markets since the arrival of the pandemic in your home ? 

The first case of people testing positive for Covid-19 in Africa was announced on 14 February 2020 and concerning uemooa on 2 March 2020. Since then, African capital markets have not had reactions of the same magnitude as those recorded on the American, European and Asian stock exchanges.

Some African stock exchanges such as those of Casablanca (Masi) and Lagos which, on the other hand, recorded declines of 21% and 13.6% respectively in one week. As for the BRVM, the decline is smaller with an average weekly decline of about 1.88% during the month of March 2020.

What are the first lessons you have learned?

As around the world, the pandemic is straining the information efficiency of markets, which are underreacting to good news and over-reacting to bad news, reflecting some investor concern, while waiting for more relevant information to be disseminated and properly integrated.

What are the most shaken titles?

Due to the measures taken by the various States to limit the spread of Covid-19 (border closures, curfews, lockdowns, etc.), some sectors of activity are necessarily more affected than others, including transport, logistics and distribution. The same applies to the agricultural sector, in connection with the fall in world prices and the difficulties linked to exports. Thus, securities related to these sectors of activity recorded for the most part significant declines.

What can African states do?

African states have the advantage of having been last affected by the pandemic. They were therefore able to learn from the measures taken on other continents to manage this health crisis. Of course, our continent has certain particularities (low urbanization, dominant informal sector) that lead to adapting measures to our context so as not to transform the health crisis into a humanitarian and social crisis.

The urgency today is to quickly limit the spread of the pandemic in Africa and contain it so as not to extend it to the entire population, including in rural areas. Africa does not have the means to manage a deep health crisis, with regard to the technical, technological and human means to be deployed for effective care of patients.

States must carry out all necessary due diligence to prevent the worst from happening. In general, we believe that the sooner the situation returns to normal, the better African economic growth, which is already expected at 1.8 per cent compared to 3.2 per cent  initially, which remains acceptable compared to growth forecasts in other regions of the world.

You took office on 1 April 2020 as President of the Association of African Stock Exchanges. What will be your mission especially in this time of crisis?

I will first coordinate the actions of African stock exchanges in the face of the coronavirus pandemic in order to preserve the integrity of our markets as well as investor confidence. Subsequently, it will be for me to lead the execution of the post-crisis strategy of African capital markets for the recovery of the continent's economies with a focus on the mobilization of local resources, the development of responsible investment and the free movement of savings at the continental level.