(Business in Cameroon) - With only three companies listed, the Douala Stock Exchange (DSX), has been much talked about over the last few months. Still struggling to get off the ground, the DSX has been fined by the Cameroon Financial Markets Commission and will have to fork out 500,000 FCfa. Why? It provided investment services without authorisation, issued invoices respectively for 700 million FCfa and 735.9 million FCfa for a total of 1.4 billion FCfa for alleged centralisation, listing and for the bond launched by Cameroon in 2010. Certainly, this fine is cause for concern for some, but it demonstrates that something is wrong at the DSX and that it is time to modernise the institution. Companies are always reluctant to join and competition from Central Africa’s regional stock exchange in Libreville, Gabon will not make things any easier for the DSX.  

One must look beyond the fines with a microscope to understand why the DSX is struggling to get off the ground. Why aren’t companies rushing to sign-up after a decade? We will take a look with input from financial experts and Cameroonian senior government officials. Babissakana, financial engineer, argues that, “the opportunities that certain companies have when approaching market structures are limited, because the requirements are not easy to meet”; Sylvester Moh Tangongho, General Manager of the Treasury, states that, “the development of a financial culture and the implementation of favourable conditions would attract more companies, including those from the private sector”; Simplot Kwenda, financial expert, finds that, “what is needed is simply the will to change things and to remember where we’re coming from.” There are many other expert opinions on how best to restart the DSX. The case of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and how to encourage SMEs to join the stock exchange could help the DSX. Oscar Onyema, General Manager of the NSE, will tell us how. We also take a close look at DSX’s management team.

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