Nairobi Star (Nairobi)
Peter Kiragu
17 December 2011
The Capital Markets Authority has approved the regulatory framework that will establish a listing segment for small and medium enterprises.
The authority developed the policy and regulatory framework in conjunction with the Nairobi Securities Exchange and the Central Depository and Settlement Corporation.
The Growth and Enterprise Market Segment is expected to be operational by June 2012. The policy necessitates companies aspiring to list in the GEMS at the NSE to have minimum capitalization of Sh10 million, with no trading record or profit history required. The SMEs will also be required to appoint a duly vetted and approved nominated advisor who will be responsible for overseeing compliance of the company with all their listing and continuing obligations and is expected to ensure that at least one third of the company’s directors undergo a corporate governance director’s induction program.
CMA chief executive Stella Kilonzo said: “The SME market is intended to offer issuers benefits by permitting for listing by introduction, without a public capital raising component, and is aimed at seeing enterprises broaden their shareholder base, gain access to open market valuation through market price discovery
Kilonzo said the policy is also in line with the sessional paper No. 2 of 2005 on development of micro and small enterprises for wealth and employment creation for poverty reduction, which identifies limited access to financial services as one of the major constraints inhibiting the growth of the MSME sector.
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