After the launching of the Sierra Leone Stock Exchange, done by President Tejan Kabbah last Friday, Sierra Leone is now assured of “completeness of the financial system.”
President Kabbah, launching the stock exchange said, “it will enhance a greater measure of conclusiveness by enabling those currently outside the formal financial sector to take advantage of investment opportunities, thereby engendering a wider distribution of national wealth”
The president said the reasons why he attached such importance to the establishment of a stock exchange was that when it would have achieved greater stature over time the country would come to realize its potentials for a transformation of financial infrastructure in the years to come.
President Kabbah urged all Sierra Leoneans to give the maximum support to the new stock exchange.
The minister of finance, John Benjamin, said a robust capital market would not only attract foreign investment, but it would also reduce national reliance on external finance thereby impacting positively on the country’s foreign debts profile and balance of payments in general.
Mr Benjamin pointed out that the stock exchange would provide for low-cost financial intermediation, and would also provide incentives for private sector investments and attraction of funds from nationals living in the Diaspora.
He pledged that his ministry would continue to work with the Bank of Sierra Leone to ensure synchronization of monetary and fiscal policies geared towards the maintenance of stable financial system in support of sustainable growth and development.
The Bank Governor, Dr James D. Rogers, credited President Kabbah for establishing the stock exchange.
He intimated that the bank had structured an environment conducive for the running of a capital market as they had revised the Companies Act, the Securities Bill, the Bankruptcy Bill and the Collective Investment Schemes Bill.
Mr Mohamed Fofanah, the deputy Bank Governor who was also the chairman of the launching, described the stock exchange as “pregnant with possibilities,” and said the Bank would only perform a monitoring function in the stock exchange.
The stock exchange will be housed at the Bank of Sierra Leone.
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