Africa Urged to Act Fast as ASEA 2025 Opens in Kigali, Experts Warn of Growing Global Pressures

Experts are sounding the alarm that Africa’s fragmented and underdeveloped capital markets risk leaving the continent unable to withstand accelerating global economic disruptions, from demographic shifts and digital dominance to geopolitical fragmentation and the decline of traditional aid.

They issued the warning on November 27, as the 28th Annual Conference of the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) opened in Kigali, bringing together the continent’s top capital market regulators, stock exchange leaders, investors, and economists under the theme, “Adapting to Global Market Shifts: Strategies for Resilience and Growth for African Capital Markets for the Future.”

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Africa still relies on banks, not markets

Rwanda’s Minister of Finance Yusuf Murangwa opened the conference with a sober assessment: despite major economies using stock markets as engines of long-term investment, Africa still leans overwhelmingly on bank lending.

“Across our continent, bank lending still accounts for over 70% of corporate financing while equity markets remain relatively very shallow,” he said. Only 14 African exchanges have market capitalization above 10% of GDP, far below the global average of almost 100%.

Murangwa warned that without a decisive shift toward equity, risk-sharing, and long-term capital, African enterprises will remain underfunded, and national development goals will remain out of reach.

“To empower Africa’s enterprises, we must shift from relying primarily on loans to embracing equity,” he said. “Stock markets must become the catalyst for transforming African economies.”

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He also emphasized that Africa cannot afford to lag behind as the rest of the world advances through the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“Africa’s financial markets unfortunately are not keeping up with the pace of innovation and disruption,” he said. “We must find solutions to our financing challenges and build financial systems that are deep and resilient.”

ASEA: The time for talking is over

ASEA President and Rwanda Stock Exchange CEO Pierre Celestin Rwabukumba called for bold action to finally integrate African markets, arguing that the future of African finance must be shaped in African capitals, not in global power centers.

“What we are building here is not just about finance,” he said. “It’s about the future of our children, the future of our continent.”

Rwabukumba said African exchanges must stop operating in isolation and accelerate collective integration initiatives. He cited the African Exchanges Linkage Project (ELP), designed to enable cross-border trading, as a historic breakthrough.

“Afreximbank calls it the most ambitious project ever undertaken to integrate African capital markets,” he said. “We are past the talking phase. We are in the doing phase.”

He argued that Rwanda is a fitting host, given its push to build a modern financial hub through the Kigali International Financial Centre (KIFC) and its strong governance record.

“Rwanda consistently ranks among the least corrupt and safest countries on the continent,” he noted. “Investor confidence grows where governance is predictable and efficient.”

Crises are now the new normal, Africa must build shock absorbers

Delivering a keynote lecture, Rwandan economist and former AfDB President Dr. Donald Kaberuka warned that Africa is operating in a transformed global landscape marked by irreversible disruptions and must rapidly build resilience.

“The only thing which is certain is that there will be more uncertainty,” he said.

Kaberuka pointed to seven major global shifts that African markets must urgently prepare for. He highlighted the continent’s rapid population growth contrasted with aging societies in the global North, the rise of digital dominance and an intensifying geopolitical battle for data, and a global scramble for critical minerals that places Africa at the center of strategic competition.

He also warned of more frequent pandemics and climate-related shocks, deepening geopolitical fragmentation, and growing challenges to long-standing currency dominance. Finally, he stressed that Africa must adapt to the end of the 60-year era of traditional development aid, which is steadily diminishing as wealthy nations turn inward.

With traditional aid drying up and northern economies prioritizing domestic needs, Kaberuka said Africa must mobilize its own resources, especially its 3 to 4 trillion dollars in savings held across pension funds, banks, and sovereign wealth funds.

But he warned that most of these assets are concentrated in South Africa and invested in low-risk, short-term instruments, limiting their impact on long-term development.
“We need to convince African asset managers,” he said. “We must build vehicles that allow Africa’s own savings to work for Africa.”

A perception gap that costs Africa billions

Kaberuka also revisited how global narratives have long distorted Africa’s economic image, from “Hopeless Continent” to “Africa Rising” to “Scramble for Africa,” arguing that such shifts fuel investor misperceptions and raise borrowing costs.

“It was a perception issue,” he said. “This zip code problem means we pay more for our debts.”

He urged African exchanges to intensify public education to dismantle the belief that stock markets are merely gambling casinos rather than engines of corporate governance and wealth creation.

A defining moment for Africa’s capital markets

As the conference opened, one message was clear: Africa must move fast or fall further behind.

Delegates agreed that the Kigali conference may be remembered as the moment Africa’s capital markets began transforming from fragmented and fragile to integrated, innovative, and resilient, capable of financing the continent’s development on Africa’s own terms.