Rwanda’s Capital Market Authority (CMA) reiterated to Cogebanque’s senior managers that: “Capital market sustains high economic growth through easy access to long-term finance” this was shown on 12 October 2018 in the extended annual week-long World Investor Week 2018.
CMA joined the rest of the world to celebrate the 2018 World Investor Week which involves a week of activities carried out by CMA to guide current and future investors to help them make informed financial decisions.
The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) prepared the second annual World Investor Week (WIW) from 1 – 7 October 2018 to promote investor education and protection and highlighting the various initiatives of securities regulators in those two areas around the globe.
As the aim for this year’s World Investor Week was to create general awareness about investor rights with respect to retail investors on the Rwandan Capital Market, CMA targeted retail investors at Compagnie Générale de Banque PLC (COGEbanque), one of the leading commercial banks in Rwanda, which is licensed and regulated by the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) and was incorporated on July 17, 1999. The bank has since seen an impressive growth that led to 23 branches opened across the country so far. It’s one of the key institutional investors on Rwanda’s bourse.
In a presentation made by CMA’s Ag. Executive Director, Mr. Bundugu Eric, and attended by 20 senior managers coming from all the bank’s departments, notes were made about the importance of investor education as well as the importance of capital market to the economy, and the Ag. Executive Director encouraged them to save and invest in Rwanda’s capital market as well as become its ambassador.
He added that the key objective of the World Investor Week is to highlight the importance of investor education and protection, and to foster learning opportunities for investors, given today’s rapidly changing environment of online and technological innovations.
The presentation was followed by a Q&A session that was very educative and full of intellectual insights from Cogebanque staff, this was yet a sign that the senior managers had understood the importance and key role of capital markets to the economy and the banking sector at large.
Throughout the 2018 World Investor Week, CMA has engaged with retail/individual investors across the country. In addition to that, CMA also educated investors on various investment products on the capital market through social media and broadcast media.
CMA has committed to facilitate an interactive and educative forum to enable investors to start saving and investing through local capital market, this will be an ongoing task after the World Investor Week.
