AfricaPress-Tanzania: AS Tanzania consolidates its middle-income economy status, the country’s capital markets and securities sector has a major role to play to enhance digital economy.
The Capital Markets and Securities Authority (CMSA) noted this on Friday during the launch of an online platform through which investors could invest in stock markets via their mobile phones. The initiative comes to relieve investors of stock markets that were forced to invest through brokers.
The Dar es Salaan Stock Exchange (DSE) launched a system called ‘Hisa Kiganjani’ expected to enable more Tanzanians to invest by buying shares and companies listing their shares more conveniently.
CMSA Chief Executive Officer Nicodemus Mkama, who launched the system, said the stock markets had to adopt technologies to enhance the digital economy since the country had entered the middle-income economy.
“This system is very crucial for the development of the country’s financial sector,” he said, adding that the system was a result of the government’s efforts to put in place an enabling environment for uplifting capital markets to bring about economic benefits.
He said the ‘Hisa Kiganjani’ platform would empower Tanzanians economically from where they were.
“For instance, it was difficult for Tanzanians living in the Diaspora to invest in stock markets because they were required to find brokers, therefore, through this platform they can invest through an online platform,” Mr Mkama stated.
With a huge population of Tanzanian youth using internet, CMSA looked forward to seeing ‘Hisa Kiganjani’ played a role as motivator to make more young people invest in the stock markets.
DSE Chief Executive Officer Moremi Marwa explained that they had arrived at such a decision to come up with this system due to the fact that investors’ base was still low, as only 550,000 Tanzanians, about 1 per cent of country’s population, invest in the stock markets.
One of the reasons could be poor accessibility to stock market services whereby the DSE office only available to the city, thus caused difficulties to Tanzanians living in other regions to invest.
“We believe that this system will make more Tanzanians invest, attract more foreign investors and instill confidence in investors because they will be paying electronically,” he said.
The system was developed by the e-Government Agency (EGA) and the Government Electronic Payment Gateway (GePG).
