BY KWANELE TSABEDZE
MBABANE – “Make sure that as you are investing your money, you are weathering all storms.”
These were the remarks made by Acting Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Finance at the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) Gugu Makhanya. She was speaking as part of a program commemorating the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) World Investor Week for 2022.
The IOSCO World Investor Week 2022 started on the 17th of October, and ends on the 21st of October.
Makhanya revealed that as members of IOSCO, they were collaborating with the organisation to educate the public and make them aware of investing. The FSRA has been publicising this message throughout the week on radio, TV, and social media platforms.
Makhanya added that they are promoting concepts of good governance in finance, impact investing to make sure Emaswati benefit from investments, fraud prevention, as well as diversification of investments to survive certain crashes.
Makhanya’s sentiments were echoed by Head of the Eswatini Stock Exchange Joce Mhlobiso Dlamini. Speaking in a video interview with the FSRA today, Dlamini established that sustainable finance refers to the process of taking into consideration Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues.
“If I can maybe take an example of Eswatini, we are an emerging economy, which means that there are many opportunities that lie out there within our sectors and industries. So, in Eswatini we can talk maybe of Agriculture, where there are opportunities for businesses to dwell into green farming or undercover farming,” said Dlamini.
She added that companies should also take care to positively affect social issues like gender inequality. She said that a lot needs to be done in Eswatini and Africa in general, as they are emerging economies with a lot of opportunities in a lot of sectors.
“It is just a matter of a company or an individual scanning through the different sectors and industries, looking for opportunities and exploiting them,” said Dlamini.
She revealed that as signatories of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the country needs to do more in supporting sustainable investment.
FSRA will continue publicising information about sustainable investing throughout the week, working with other stakeholders in the finance sector like fund managers and other regulators.
According to the IOSCO website, World Investor Week (WIW) is a week-long, global campaign promoted to raise awareness about the importance of investor education and protection and highlight the various initiatives of securities regulators in these two critical areas. In October, IOSCO securities regulators and other IOSCO members on six continents provide a range of activities, such as launching investor-focused communications and services, promoting contests to increase awareness of investor education initiatives, organizing workshops and conferences, and conducting local/national campaigns in their own jurisdictions.
