CMSA seeks for nominated advisors to stand for its equity market

CAPITAL Markets and Securities Authorities (CMSA) is looking for strategic advisors and their representatives in order to operationalize its Enterprise Growth Market (EGM) segment of the stock exchange. EGM is a recently established equity market by CMSA which is intended specifically for the development of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country. A statement issued by CMSA says that, prospective advisors would be companies licensed by CMSA to undertake responsibility of nurturing and assisting an issuer for a public offer of securities and advising issuer listed on the EGM segment of stock exchange EGM which will later be launched by Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) once advisors are obtained will help small and medium enterprises that cannot access capital markets and also would help them obtain the needed capital for their expansions. The establishment of EGM comes about as a result of the recent study carried out by CMSA on the market structure most appropriate for the country. The study identified the need to change the existing structure to cope with the requirements of the economy as well as to facilitate the implementation of national policies aimed at economically empowering Tanzanians. Such policies includes policy on encouraging SME to grow, the National Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction (MKUKUTA), the Properties Business Formalization Program (PBFP-MKURABITA) and the Zanzibar Economic Growth Program (ZEGP-MKUZA).The implementation of the above mentioned policies, require a market segment which will cater for the needs of a section of the economy that up to now has not been able to tap into capital market, says CMSA spokesperson Mr. Charles Shirima. EGM will support the implementation of the above policies by creating entry to capital markets for entities which up to now have not had access to this opportunity. It is an envisaged as a new equity market segment that will exist in conjunction to, and complement the existing Main Investments Market Segment (MIMS) at DSE. With the liberalization of the Tanzanian economy, entrepreneurship is growing more and more and as a result the number of SMEs has been increasing and is expected to increase further. Coupled by this gradual growth, SMEs needs support. However, both the government‘s policy and strategic studies and capital markets studies have unequivocally shown that access to capital has been a key hindrance to the development of entrepreneurship and growth of SMEs. Creating an environment that is conducive to the growth and development of entrepreneurship and SMEs, is a key objective and an integral part of the government’s MKUKUTA program initiatives.