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{
    "id": 17328,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/17328/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 464,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kimunya",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Transport",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": " Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I beg to second this Bill. It is a straightforward Bill that aims to bring more improvements into our capital markets. For those who were here this afternoon and have been following the debate on the fluctuations of our currency, you heard that one common thing is that we need to bring more monies into the country. One of the ways of taping foreign investments and more forex coming into the country is opening up some receptacle through some markets where people can come, bring in their money and start investing or trading from here. I believe this further deepening of the capital markets will be part of attracting that in terms of the taping into the wider market where the money markets are out there. Particularly when you look at the futures and the commodity market, Kenya may not be endowed with most of these minerals that are traded within the futures market, namely, the gold and silver. Cocoa is traded as one of the very fast moving commodities. We may not have it, but there is no reason why we should not create a market for that within East Africa and taking advantage of our advances in technology in terms of us being an international financial centre. There is no reason why we should not be providing that market for the region, so that although we do not have the minerals and all those commodities, Nairobi could well be the trading centre for all those commodities linking the East, the West, the North and what is happening within our region. Because we have already done it with the Nairobi Stock Exchange and have been the pioneer; the bigger brother within East Africa, I believe we need to take the next limb which is now to move to the commodities market. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, when you look at the Chicago Exchange in terms of commodity exchange and compare with what happens to our farmers, a farmer who has his wheat and maize being traded within the commodities market does not need to wait for the harvest time to start asking how much the Government is going to buy it from the farmers. People will start selling their produce when it is in the farm. You know that in three months’ time, you would like to buy that wheat which is grown somewhere in Tana River for so much per acre or per bag. That money is available to the farmers to then use for their day to day activities. They are selling something that will be harvested in future rather than wait for it to happen. This is the kind of modernization that we are being called upon to create room for. I believe this Bill will help in terms of that plus also opening up doors for bonds trading. People now have understood the bonds, but we can open over the counter trading. This will make the process far much easier. Again, it is a straightforward small piece of legislation, but very important and deep in terms of its implications and impact on our capital markets. I beg to second"
}