Capital Markets

CMA targets students in training drive

cma trivia

Capital Markets Authority (CMA) acting chief executive Paul Muthaura with Asiya Kanji of Aga Khan Academy at the Upper Hill offices in Nairobi December 2, 2014. The 16-year-old student won the CMA national trivia competition. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Primary and secondary school students are set to start getting capital markets education once the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) and Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) finalise plans to incorporate the training into the curriculum.

The move is part of a wider plans to increase the level of investor education on capital markets, with acting CMA chief executive Paul Muthaura saying that the regulator had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with KICD a year ago and expects to roll out the plan soon.

“We have been working with them (KICD) to develop appropriate curriculum insertions cutting across all the different financial sector issues around insurance, savings, securities, capital markets, pensions, and most recently we were able to involve the savings and co-operative societies regulator SASRA (Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority),” said Mr Muthaura.

The curriculum is expected to educate the learners on the opportunities available in the money markets.

“Whatever is inserted into the curriculum at both primary and secondary level will ensure that those who are leaving high school are better equipped to understand what the opportunities are in the financial markets,” he said.

Mr Muthaura spoke on the sidelines of a ceremony to award the winners of the recently concluded CMA national trivia competition, which was billed as part of an ongoing public awareness drive by the capital markets.

The competition was won by 16-year-old Asiya Kanji, a student at Aga Khan Academy in Nairobi. She will receive Sh200,000 to invest in stocks of her choice at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).

A total of 7,522 applicants participated in the six-week competition that tested their knowledge of the capital markets.

Other than the planned training of students at primary and secondary levels, the CMA launched in June a financial literacy plan targeting university and college students across the country, which Mr Muthaura said would be widened going forward.

READ: CMA targets varsities with new financial literacy plan

The NSE already runs an investment challenge for students of tertiary institutions.

This is an online simulation of live trading on the NSE using virtual capital, with the participant having the highest portfolio size after three months winning Sh200,000 to invest in stocks.

Capital markets and exchanges across the region have been looking to increase the level of public and market practitioner training, with Uganda and Rwanda keen to increase awareness of their growth enterprise market segment (GEMs) as well as small and medium enterprises market segment.

The regional market players are also getting training through the Kampala-based Securities Industry Training Institute (SITI East Africa).

“In 2015 SITI is looking at aggressively engaging with market players and regulators to have SITI certification and examinations,” said the East Africa Securities Exchanges Association in a statement last week.

In September, CMA signed an MoU with the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment for the introduction of international certification standards in the capital markets industry in Kenya.

The staff certification will cut across intermediaries such as stockbrokers, investment banks, fund managers and investment advisers.