African capital markets leaders seek to unlock Sh516tr for development

Some of the delegates attending the 3rd Sustainable Capital Markets Conference in Nairobi. [Nanjinia Wamuswa, Standard]

Capital markets provide an important link between savings and investment by enabling governments and companies to raise long-term financing for projects that can create jobs, expand businesses and support economic growth.

However, African capital markets remain underdeveloped, with fewer than half of countries issuing domestic corporate bonds since 2000, while equity markets have grown 27-fold to about $561 billion (Sh72.9 trillion) but declined as a share of global capital market activity.