Rwanda’s largest cement manufacturer, Cimerwa, on Monday listed all its shares on the Rwanda Stock Exchange (RSE), becoming the 10th company to trade on the local bourse. The South African and Rwandan owned company floated 49 per cent of its shares on the local exchange, opening up opportunities for investors to own stocks in the firm. “This sets a sound basis for the sector’s future potential,” Cimerwa’s Chief Executive Officer, Albert Sigei, said. Sigei described the transaction, which was facilitated by BK Capital, as the perfect platform for “us to rearm our pledge to our loyal customers and stakeholders.” The listing of Cimerwa was seen as yet another boost to the country’s nascent stock market, which a couple years ago only had a handful of players. That is because it comes at a time Rwanda seeks to position itself as a regional financial hub. The entry of Cimerwa brings a total of trading companies on the RSE to 10, including Bank of Kigali (BK), Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), National Media Group (NMG), Bralirwa, Uchumi Supermarket, Equity Bank, I&M Bank Rwanda, Crystal Telecom, and RH Bophelo. The stock market was established back in 2009. At the time, there was no formal exchange, rather securities were traded on what was known as the Rwanda Over-the-Counter (ROTC) – a process of trading securities for companies that are not listed on a formal exchange. Looking back, Dr. James Ndahiro, the Technical Advisor to the Capital Market Authority (CMA) and the former Chairman of RSE, says the biggest step taken so far is around mindset change. “Rwandans have evolved from traditional investment of brick-and-mortar to embrace securities and bonds, which is really a good sign of development,” he told The New Times on Tuesday. The issue from the beginning was to convince companies that they are better off listed publicly, Ndahiro said. Ndahiro further pointed out that the markets have offered an opportunity to both Rwandans and foreigners to diversify their businesses, raise cheap capital and share risk with others. “They are even realising that it is also a good strategy for whenever you want to exit the business,” he said. The capital market was set up in 2009 with the aim of making available a market mechanism that would enable the private and public sectors to have access to long term capital for economic development.