The international conference on financial markets, J-Cap 2020, has been held since Monday, February 10 in Abidjan, in the presence of Amadou Gon Coulibaly, Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire, Romuald Wadagni, President of the WAEMU Council of Ministers , Adama Coulibaly, his Ivorian counterpart, and all market players.
Organized by the World Bank and the Regional Council for Public Savings and Capital Markets, CREPMF, this meeting aims to reflect on the challenges of growth through capital markets, structural transformation and the revitalization of the regional financial market.
Opening this international conference, Amadou Gon Coulibaly, Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire, said he was convinced that it "will make it possible to lay the foundations for a long-term capital market, financed by household savings and allowing the distribution of the growth of our economies with the people".

From its creation in 1998 to December 31, 2019, the regional financial market has enabled WAEMU member states to raise around CFAF 7,500 billion to finance their development programs. Companies have been able to mobilize about 2,500 billion FCFA to carry out and increase their activities.
However, speculation, increasingly persistent, on the imminence of crises on the financial markets, arouses reflections to find solutions to strengthen the solidity of a financial market bringing together Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
For Romuald Wadagni, Minister of Economy and Finance of Benin, “one of the priorities today of our financial ecosystem remains the increase in the attractiveness of the regional financial market vis-à-vis international investors. If the interest of investors is increasingly focused on small and medium-sized enterprises, the most capital-intensive sectors continue to capture the bulk of financing”.
According to data from the African Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (AVCA) published on June 26, 2019, investments in 2018 reached their lowest level in three years, falling 10% to $3.5 billion. As for savings, sub-Saharan Africa records a rate of 16%, according to the IMF.
The harmonization of the taxation of transferable securities within the Member States and of the pricing applicable on the market are the subject of work with a view to improving its attractiveness. In the same vein, the establishment of a fund for the protection of savers, the development of a system of penalties for stock market violations are priorities for 2020.