What is ECMA, and what does it regulate?

The Ethiopian Capital Market Authority is the government regulator established by the Capital Market Proclamation. Its principal objectives (Article 5) are to protect investors, to ensure securities can be issued and traded in an orderly, fair, efficient and transparent way, and to reduce systemic risk in the market.

ECMA licenses and supervises the people and firms in the market — the exchange, the intermediaries (capital market service providers) and the issuers — and it writes the directives that turn the Proclamation into practical rules.

It is run by a seven-member Board of Directors (which includes the Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia) together with a Director General and staff, and is based in Addis Ababa.