PARLIAMENT - Trade and Commerce Minister, Monique Nsanzabaganwa, yesterday introduced to parliament a bill on regulating operations of Capital Markets and collective investment schemes in the country. Presenting the bill to a plenary session chaired by Speaker Rose Mukantabana yesterday, Nsanzabaganwa said that a law regulating the industry is necessary before local companies begin full scale trading on the bourse. “The law will regulate the behaviour of market players…it will create investor confidence,” she said. She noted that only companies that have embraced minimum corporate governance standards shall be allowed to trade on the stock exchange. Parliamentarian Gideon Kayinamura questioned applicability of the concept given the fact that most businesses in the country are SMEs which rarely file audited books of accounts. The Minister responded by pointing to the recently enacted Company Act which compels businesses to embrace minimum corporate governance standards if they are to access loans from commercial banks. But the house became stormy when Kayinamura suggested the concepts of capital markets operation are too complicated for some parliamentarians to understand forcing his colleague Juliana Kantengwa to raise a point of order. “Madam Speaker, I want to state it categorically that my silence is not an indication that I am incapable of grasping these issues,” she said with irritation. The proposed Capital Markets Authority, Nsanzabaganwa said will regulate activities of collective investment schemes like; mutual funds, unity trusts and contractual schemes. According Nsanzabaganwa, after one year of existence, only Kenya Commercial Bank is currently listed while the government is planning to divest its shares in some companies through the Kigali Stock Exchange. Ends
