The Umoa (West African Monetary Union) securities market, where countries in the sub-region regularly issue bonds to raise cash, is largely dominated by commercial banks. As buyers, these players represent around 90% of the securities on this market, which weighs about 13600 billion FCFA (especially in OAT, BAT and syndicated securities). According to an evaluation by the UMOA-Titres agency covering the year 2019, for Togo, the number 1 place went to Coris Bank, followed, in order, by Bank of Africa, Ecobank, then Orabank, then the Togolese Bank Union (UTB), which closes the select group of the best contributing SVTs (specialists in treasury securities)

The information comes from a panel of experts discussing the issue, as part of the 3rd edition of the Meetings of the Public Securities Market of the UEMOA zone (REMTP 2021) at the initiative of the Umoa-Titres agency, specialized in the development of public securities within the community area. The work, online, opened yesterday.

Thus, at the end of December 2020, only 8.63% of securities were held by local investors (Insurance Company, UCITS, Pension Funds etc...), according to Abdoulaye Karamoko, Senior Portfolio Manager at Enko Capital, exhibitor, the structure of the public securities market and the weight of institutional investors. Of this portion, UCITS (Organization for Collective Investment in Securities), for example, represent only slightly more than a third of the weight of local institutions, with 720 billion FCFA under management at the end of 2020, barely 5% of the

The representation is even less, when it comes to offshore institutions, who only manage 100 billion FCFA, or 0.75% on this market. These are mainly Offshore Banks and other Brokers, Family Offices, or even a few rare Hedge Funds

For experts, this under-representation of institutions is explained in particular by a sub-regional regulatory context that would limit the field of action of certain actors, the structuring of pension systems, which limits interest in the financial markets, or a more limited offer from banks and SGI (intermediation companies).

, the discussions of this panel of market specialists explore the possibility of market reforms, in order to be able to invite more insurers and pension funds. The latter types of actors, in particular, make it possible to support longer-term loans (over 10 or 20 years), unlike shorter maturities, as currently observed on the

The ultimate objective would be to achieve a presence of 35% of these institutional actors, in a context marked by economies that are still very poorly financed in the sub-region.