By Kingsley Jassi:
The Ministry of Mining and Minority Shareholders Association of Listed Companies (Misalico) met civil servants in Lilongwe on Wednesday in a bid to woo them into share purchasing when mining companies issue their Initial Purchase Offering (IPOs).
Two large-scale mining companies, Lotus Resources of Kayelekera Uranium Mine and Lancaster Exploration Limited of Songwe Hill Rare earth mining project, have already committed to issue their IPOs within the next two years.
This is pursuant to provisions of the Mining Development Agreement (MDAs) they signed with the government.
According to Mining Minister Monica Chang’anamuno, this is to ensure Malawians own part of these mining ventures and maximise economic benefits.
“We already have two companies that we are sure they will list but I am excited to inform you that four more large-scale mining companies are also coming; so, there will be six large-scale companies in the Malawi Stock Exchange,” Chang’anamuno said.
Misalico Secretary General, Frank Harawa, said there is a need to have policies that enable Malawians to afford more shareholding, saying they wrote to the government through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs to introduce such policies.
“If Malawians were more empowered with significant shareholding, they could afford to invest in other countries to buy shares. That would generate foreign currency because those shareholders would be receiving dividends in forex,” Harawa said.
Other policy calls include digitisation of share trading where people can trade on mobile phones to create convenience, according to Harawa.
He further called for introduction of dollar-denominated share trading platforms as is the case in other countries like Zimbabwe to ensure more attraction of potential shareholders especially from the diaspora.
According to Harawa, prospective investors should have confidence in the MSE as it has been performing comparatively well in Africa with higher returns.
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