As the Ethiopian Capital Markets Authority (ECMA) polishes the regulatory landscape in anticipation of the country’s maiden stock exchange, it has tapped support from regulators overseeing the biggest financial market in the world. Financial authorities from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were hosted by their local counterparts and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at the Skylight Hotel for a training program on Monday morning.
Glen Gordon, associate director at the SEC, provided insightful reflections on the balance between regulation and market development from a nearly three-decade career at the Commission. He highlighted the alignment of goals between the private sector and regulators in nurturing a market free of fraud and deceit.
“A basic set of good rules,” Glen noted as foundational to the development of functional markets.
He illustrated the potential for capital markets to outgrow the traditional banking system in providing access to capital, investment options, and economic prosperity. There were 653 unicorn startups with a combined value of 630 billion dollars that participated in the US capital markets in 2023. This figure starkly contrasts Ethiopia’s funding to startups, which was around 3 million dollars in the same year.
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