At maiden Diamond Capital Convention: Stakeholders call for stronger CEMAC financial market.

ALMASI Capital & Advisory is organising the reflections under the high patronage of the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Dr Chief Joseph Dion Ngute. The Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, is represented PM Dion Ngute at the opening ceremony.

According to the Director General of ALMASI Capital & Advisory, Ingrid Obouh-Fegue, the convention comes at a decisive moment for Central Africa. 

Obouh-Fegue said mobilisation of sustainable financing, transformation of economies and growth of the private sector require a stronger regional financial market.

“Our region possesses the institutions, ambitious companies and considerable savings. Yet the meeting between available capital and the projects that need financing remains too rare, too slow and too difficult,” she said.

According to her, discussions at the Convention seeks to come out with concrete solutions. Obouh-Fegue called for a financial market more accessible and understandable to companies. She challenged businesses to identify hurdles in accessing the financial market.

Obouh-Fegue encouraged entrepreneurs to engage directly with investment advisers, financial institutions and other market professionals present at the convention.

She also urged young people, students and emerging entrepreneurs to take an active interest in the financial market.

Obouh-Fegue said the Diamond Capital Convention White Paper is expected to emerge from the discussions. She nevertheless insisted that it should go beyond a conventional report.

What is needed, Obouh-Fegue said, is a roadmap of African commitments and clearly identified responsibilities for specifying who can act, how and what the next step should be.

Building infrastructure of trust

The President of the Commission for the Surveillance of the Central African Financial Market, COSUMAF, Jacqueline Adiaba-Nkembe, said the organisation of the convention demonstrates the growing maturity of the regional financial marketplace.

She described the initiative as an opportunity for the financial community, including central institutions, institutional investors, banks and public and private companies to come together around

the development of the market.

Adiaba-Nkembe said the development of a financial market could not depend solely on rules and regulations, but also requires initiatives from market participants.

“What we need to build is an infrastructure of trust that will allow existing capital and established vision to meet and mutually reinforce each other,” Adiaba-Nkembe said. 

She maintained that building trust requires the involvement of all stakeholders. The COSUMAF president also highlighted challenges that continue to limit the development of the regional capital market.

Adiaba-Nkembe noted that the market still has relatively few issuers, while the investor base remains narrow. At the same time, she said, the financing of economies continues to rely heavily on bank intermediation.

She described the development of market-based financing as a macroeconomic necessity rather than merely a matter of financial sophistication.

Adiaba-Nkembe said COSUMAF had undertaken regulatory reforms aimed at modernising the market framework and making a wider range of financial products and instruments available.

She cited developments covering digital finance, sustainable finance, thematic financing and crowdfunding, as well as measures intended to simplify documentation for issuances and reduce associated costs and delays.

Financial education, the DG said, as an important component of market development. This, Adiaba-Nkembe added, should be with the objective of transforming savings among the population into investment in financial securities.

“Regulation is not a brake on the development of the financial market. It is its ultimate foundation,” she noted.

Market must serve real economies 

The Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, said the convention will shape the future of CEMAC economies. Motaze said the Sub-region has significant economic potential, with projects, entrepreneurs and investment opportunities, alongside savings and financial resources that could be better mobilised for production and investment.

He noted that financing needs remain substantial. The minister said infrastructure development, business expansion, industrialisation, local processing of raw materials, the energy transition, the digital economy and job creation all require significant financing.

“This is precisely where the capital market must fully play its role,” he said. He called for the construction of a deep, liquid, transparent, secure and accessible financial market.

The minister added that such a market should be capable of mobilising regional and international savings and directing them towards productive investment.

According to Motaze, reforms undertaken in recent years, including the unification of the regional financial market, have allowed important progress to be made. 

He identified increasing the number and diversity of issuers, developing stock-market culture, strengthening secondary-market liquidity, mobilising more institutional investors, diversifying financial products and facilitating companies’ access to the market among the priorities needed going forward.

He called for a closer relationship between the financial market and businesses. Companies, Motaze said, need to better understand the opportunities offered by the capital market and receive support to improve their governance, financial transparency and ability to mobilise long-term resources. The convention ends today, September 25. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3920 of Friday September 25, 2026