US embassy cable - 02ABUJA2685

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 002685 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
FOR DEPARTMENT, PLEASE PASS TO EXIM, USTDA, USAID, USTR 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EFIN, EINV, ECON, ETRD, ECIN, NI 
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: GON AND PRIVATE SECTOR ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT 
REGIONAL CAPITAL MARKET CLEARING SYSTEM 
 
 
1.  Summary:  In mid-August, Special Advisor for the 
Department of the Treasury's Government Debt Issuance and 
Management (GDIM) program, Thomas Briggs visited Nigeria, 
presenting a proposal on the establishment of a regional 
securities clearing and settlement facility for sub-Saharan 
Africa to senior Government of Nigeria officials, private 
sector leaders and senior U.S. mission personnel.  Briggs' 
model, AfriClear, would help open the door to the level of 
capital in-flows necessary to spur greater private sector on 
the continent.  Because the feasibility study for such a 
clearing mechanism would require a high degree of cooperation 
among relevant USG agencies, post strongly recommends that 
State, USAID, Treasury, USTR, EXIM, and other relevant 
offices consider this project as a priority item for further 
development. End Summary. 
 
 
2. Thomas Briggs visited Nigeria during the week of August 
18, 2002 to discuss with various stakeholders a proposal to 
establish a regional securities clearing and settlement 
facility for Sub-Saharan African countries. 
 
 
3.   Briggs has dubbed the proposal Africlear.  It would 
establish an international/regional clearing and settlement 
facility for Africa, similar to Euroclear and Clearstream, 
the international central securities depositories (ICSDs) 
that serve the northern hemisphere international capital 
markets.  The proposed system would be a capital markets 
clearing and settlement facility operating across Africa to 
provide access to African capital markets for investors from 
the rest of the world. 
 
 
4. Briggs believes current technical barriers to capital 
market development in Africa are not amenable to bilateral, 
private or public sector solutions by any individual actor. 
These technical barriers must be overcome to realize any hope 
of cross-border liquidity and significant portfolio 
investment inflows. The AfriClear initiative would ease the 
way of capital flows into Africa, and lay the necessary 
financial groundwork for the kind of private-sector led 
growth experienced in Latin America and Southeast Asia. 
 
 
----------------------------------- 
Nigeria as a Part of AfriClear 
----------------------------------- 
 
 
5. Nigeria is one of three potential stakeholder countries 
for the proposed facility.  It possesses the second largest 
securities market in the region (after South Africa) and 
could potentially contribute, along with South Africa, the 
transactions volume that could make the facility 
self-sustaining. 
 
 
6. Furthermore, Nigeria, and especially President Olusegun 
Obasanjo, are leaders of the New Partnership for Africa,s 
Development (NEPAD).  The NEPAD agenda specifically lists as 
key priorities "the deepening of financial markets ( 
cross-border harmonization and integration ( risk reduction 
and speeding up of financial market integration through 
establishing an international standard legislative and 
regulatory framework and creating a single African trading 
platform.8 
 
 
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Results of Meetings 
------------------------ 
 
 
6.  Briggs separately met chief executives/senior 
representatives of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Central 
Securities Clearing System,  Economic Community of West 
African States (ECOWAS), Ministry of Integration and 
Cooperation in Africa,  New Partnership for African 
Development (NEPAD), Office of the President of the 
Government of Nigeria, and the United States Agency for 
International Development (USAID). 
 
 
5.  The reaction of Nigerian interlocutors to AfriClear was 
universally positive.  Executives from the Nigerian Stock 
Exchange discussed the utility and relevance of AfriClear to 
plans to grow their market.  The exchange has already begun 
cross-border listing initiatives with the Johannesburg Stock 
Exchange, the kind of synergies that would be enhanced with a 
facility such as AfriClear. 
 
 
6. The chief executive of the Central Securities Clearing 
System (CSCS), the organization responsible for clearing 
securities transactions generated on the floor of the 
Nigerian Stock Exchange, welcomed the prospect of feeding 
CSCS into a wider regional securities settlement network. He 
also discussed present difficulties in attempts by smaller 
regional players to piggy-back on Nigeria,s stock market 
operations infrastructure. The CSCS Chief Exceutive believes 
a facility like AfriClear would address these types of 
constraints and facilitate cross-border transaction flows. 
 
 
7.  Minister for Integration and Cooperation in Africa, Dr. 
Bimbo Ogunkelu, as well as the head of Nigeria,s NEPAD team, 
Ambassador Isaac Aluko-Olokun, were receptive to the proposal 
and agreed it would enhance economic development and directly 
promote regional integration.  In separate meetings, they 
both recommended the initiative as a NEPAD agenda item. 
Ambassador Aluko-Olokun subsequently discussed the idea with 
NEPAD counterparts in South Africa, and issued a formal 
invitation letter asking for the proposal to be presented for 
discussion at the Africa Union/NEPAD Regional Conference in 
Cameroon in October 2002 
8. Briggs met Steven Oronsaye, Principal Secretary to the 
President, and Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, Special Adviser to the 
President on Budget Matters.  Oronsaye said he would bring 
the proposal to the attention of President Obasanjo with a 
recommendation that he support it for its potential impact on 
portfolio investment into the region. 
 
 
9.  Ambassador Jeter and the USAID Mission Country Director 
lend their support to including this project in our efforts 
to assist economic development and integration in Africa. It 
is hard to overestimate the role that private sector 
investment might play in Africa.  AfriClear would make 
private sector direct and portfolio investment attractive not 
only to foreign investors, but also to the Nigerians and 
other African investors. 
 
 
10. The feasibility study for such a clearing mechanism would 
require considerable technical expertise, much of which 
resides in differing USG agencies. Post believes this is a 
worthwhile project and would ask that relevant USG agencies, 
including State, USAID, Treasury, USTR, and EXIM, take it 
under consideration as a priority item for further 
development. 
JETER