The World Bank Group’s Joint Capital Markets Programme (J-CAP) will hold its inaugural Capital Markets Conference from the 10-11 February this year in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

A statement from the organisers said this year’s focus would be on the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU).

Government and industry leaders from across five different continents will come together and discuss the most important trends, challenges, and opportunities for WAEMU’s capital markets.

The conference will feature development stories from across the globe, examine their replicability and propose a new partnership, investment and business opportunities for foreign and domestic stakeholders, with innovative ideas explored through dynamic public-to-private sector conversations and hands-on working groups.

The conference’s spotlight will be on the creation of a strong government bond market that would function as a gateway for corporate financing and foreign investments; and the development of equity and corporate debt markets that would offer major opportunities for WAEMU’s real estate and infrastructure sector, as well as its SMEs, and financial institutions.

Another area of attention would be the expansion and diversification of the investor base, with a focus on the mobilization of foreign investors into the onshore capital markets and the expansion of the domestic pension fund industry as a source of long-term finance and stability.

J-CAP is a World Bank Group Priority Initiative that brings together a suite of World Bank Group services under a single engagement aimed at developing viable local capital markets in its focus countries. Those focus countries currently are: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Peru, Vietnam and WAEMU.