The Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) has, after a decade of trying, finally replaced its floor-based open outcry system with an electronic trading platform.
“The NSE is a small exchange by international standards but still is one of the busiest in sub-Saharan Africa, with high levels of activity from Kenyan investors,” explains a spokesman for Standard Bank of South Africa in the Kenyan capital. “The exchange swapped its `call over’ method in 1991 and introduced the open outcry system where floor traders in red jackets gathered around a board and shouted out prices for bourse officials to record by pen.”
The spokesman says the exchange has been trying for over ten years to fully automate its systems in order to boost liquidity, cut transaction costs and reduce trading risks, but the move was delayed by bureaucratic hurdles.