DAR ES SALAAM STOCK EXCHANGE CEO A PANELIST AT THE 200 CEO'S FORUM

Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange CEO, Peter Nalitolela speaks during the 200 CEO's Business Forum in Dar es Salaam.

On Thursday, 29th August 2024, the CEO of Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange, Mr. Peter Nalitolela was a Panelist during the 2nd Annual 200 CEO’s Forum. The topic for discussion for the panel was "Financing Tanzania's Future: Unlocking Growth Through Strategic Financial Services" and the key discussion points covered included:

• The role of financial services in driving economic growth
• Access to finance for businesses and individuals
• Attracting investment to Tanzania
• Innovative financial solutions for the future

The Panel discussion was moderated by Mr. Bakari S Machumu, outgoing CEO of Mwananchi Communications Ltd and other panel members included, Mr. Obedi S. Laiser, Managing Director/CEO of Absa Bank Tanzania; Ms. Esther Cecil Maruma, CEO of Bank of Africa Tanzania Limited; and Mr. Samwel Esupu, Partner, Tax & Regulatory Services at KPMG Tanzania. The Guest of Honour during the panel presentation was Hon. Dr. Kitila Alexander Kanyama Mkumbo (MP), The Minister of State in the President’s Office – Investments and Planning.

Some of the key points from Mr. Nalitolela were:

• Businesses should be more open to inviting partners in order to raise capital as opposed to relying only on traditional forms of financing. Partners can help provide more patient forms of capital beyond what traditional financing can support due to restricted appetite on risk as well as the shorter tenor typically offered by traditional financing

• DSE Tanzania provides an avenue for raising patient, long-term financing through issuance of Equity and Long-term debt

• Through its DSE SMEs Acceleration Segment, “DSAS” window (a.k.a Endeleza Project), DSE provides SMEs a profiling and visibility enhancement platform that can help them connect to Private Equity, Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors and other forms of alternative financing

• Leveraging on technology, DSE provides an avenue to attract investors across the country through its Online Trading Platform, both web based as well as DSE Kiganjani mobile app

• By connecting business in funding need to investors (both local and foreign), DSE helps drive economic growth and attracts hard-currency portfolio investment from abroad as evidenced by recent successes in the Corporate Debt market. Internationally, there is a lot of appetite on ESG-compliant investments as well as other forms of non-traditional investments such as Sukuk Bonds

• Tanzanian investors should take advantage of the prospective upcoming listings as the Government looks to increase efficiency of state-owned entities by privatizing them and reduce the Government shareholding, as recently highlighted by Her Excellency, the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan

In his closing remarks, Mr. Nalitolela mentioned that “Resources are not scarce, ideas are” and he challenged the CEOs and Business owners in the audience to use the Capital Markets to mobilize resources to finance their business ideas."