Forbes Calls Africa The ‘Last Investment Frontier’

Everyday there seems to be new speculative articles about African progress and investment opportunities. Today is no different, here’s an excerpt from a report by Forbes commentator John Christy that suggests the same:

“In 1989, there were just five sub-Saharan stock exchanges; now there are 16.

Granted, these are still immature markets in many respects. Stock-market capitalization as a percentage of GDP is less than 30% in sub-Saharan Africa. The comparable figure for Brazil is nearly 70%.

Liquidity is a more pressing concern. At the tiny Uganda Securities Exchange in Kampala, just nine companies are listed, and trading took place only 11 days last month. The exchange’s average daily volume: $200,000. Don’t expect a Uganda ETF anytime soon.

That said, investor enthusiasm for so-called “frontier markets” has never been stronger. Last month, Nairobi-based Safaricom, Kenya’s biggest mobile-phone service provider, raised $800 million in an initial public offering that was heavily oversubscribed.”

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