Capital Markets Development Trust Fund Work Program

The Call for proposals targets initiatives that promote infrastructure modernization, stakeholder engagement, regulatory reforms, capacity-building, and product diversification to strengthen financial markets across Africa.

The Trust Fund works to promote the development of African capital markets and enhance access to capital alignment with the African Development Bank’s broader mission to mobilize resources through domestic financial markets and advance its High 5 operational priorities. The CMDTF is part of the African Development Bank’s Financial Sector Development Department.

Priorities

• CMDTF supports the Bank’s High 5s and operational priorities, including:
  • The 2022-2026 Private Sector Development (PSD) Strategy, which positions financial sector development as a key enabler of private sector development.
  • The 2018-2025 Regional Integration Strategic Framework, which focuses on strengthening regional financial integration
  • The Industrialization Strategy for Africa 2016–2025, which commits the Bank to growing liquid and effective capital markets.
  • The Gender Strategy 2021-2025, which commits the Bank to leveraging all its traditional instruments and developing innovative financing mechanisms, to increase the confidence of African financial institutions to provide financing and technical assistance to women SMEs.

Challenges

• Absence of a critical mass of listed and tradeable securities
• Too few participants issuers, investors, intermediaries, etc.
• Lack of product diversity
• Weak regulatory structures
• Inadequate financial infrastructure
• Poor risk and price identification methods
• Limited activity in the secondary markets
• Limited mobilization of local currency savings

Eligible Activities

• Technical assistance to modernize and develop capital markets soft/hard infrastructure
• Workshops and seminars to build consensus/understanding/skills among stakeholders for appropriate policy, regulatory and institutional reforms.
• Studies, roadmaps and masterplans to support design and implement capital markets Policy, regulatory and institutional reforms
• Training to strengthen capacity of targeted clients in the design and execution of capital markets development-related projects and programs.
• Knowledge products and services on African capital markets i.e. sector studies, establishment of trade knowledge platforms, markets information systems, dissemination of best practices in the field of capital markets development, etc.

Beneficiaries

• Stock exchanges
• Local/regional capital markets’ authorities
• Institutional investors and their regulators
• Central banks
• Regional Member Countries, ministries of finance, debt management offices
• African government institutions involved in capital markets development
• Ministry of regional integration
• Regional Economic Communities/regional and continental bodies, such as WAEMU (West African Economic and Monetary Union), ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), WAMI (West African Monetary Institute), AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) Secretariat.

Eligibility Criteria

• The call is open to entities based in the African Development Bank regional member countries.

For more information, visit African Development Bank Group.