A new vista in capital market development  in Africa was opened last week as Nigeria, Ghana and the French speaking countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the integration  of the three exchanges. The signing trailed a three-day debate on the possibilities of integrating some of the African exchanges in the sharing of their infrastructures and render timely service to the investors.
The MoU is believed to have been the forerunner to the expected take-off of the African Market Index (AMI) which would debut in 2010 across the globe as a vehicle for the transmission of capital market information to the investing publics.
While Professor Ndi Okereke Onyiuke, director general of the Nigeria  Stock  Exchange (NSE),  signed on behalf of Nigeria, Mr Kofi Yamouah and Mr Jean Paul Giliet signed for the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE)  and Bourse Regionale des Valures Mobiliers (BRVM) respectively.
Onyiuke noted that the MoU will kick off a new trend in repositioning the regional markets across global market demands. The three exchanges will leverage the opportunities of superior technology, skills, transparency and speed of transactions.
The details of its financial implications have not been known but it is expected that the three countries will work out a mutually beneficial financial details which will form part of the exchanges budgeted development cost in the coming financial year.
Market observes noted that the take- off of market integration will position the various Exchanges involved to take advantage of the network by the time the market will make full recovery in 2010. Ghana will host the secretariat of the technical committee that will see to the implementation of the MoU.