BRVM: listings, markets and operation of the regional exchange
What is the BRVM?
The BRVM (Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières) is the stock exchange common to the eight WAEMU states: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire), Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. Its head office is in Abidjan. It is shared by several countries and handles the listing and trading of shares and bonds.
Creation and history of the BRVM
The WAMU Council of Ministers decided to create a regional financial market on 17 December 1993 and entrusted its implementation to the BCEAO. The BRVM and the Central Depository/Settlement Bank (DC/BR) were incorporated as public limited companies in Cotonou on 18 December 1996. The regulatory body was installed on 20 November 1997, and operations began on 16 September 1998.
Several stages modernised the exchange: decentralised electronic quotation from 24 March 1999, daily quotation from 12 November 2001, three-day settlement-delivery since 2 July 2007, and continuous trading since 16 September 2013. A third equity compartment opened in 2018, and the BRVM has been part of the MSCI Frontier Markets indices since 2016.
How the BRVM works and who takes part in the market
The BRVM is fully electronic. Investors place their orders through brokerage and asset management firms (SGI), which are authorised to operate throughout the Union. The DC/BR holds the securities and settles transactions, while the AMF-UMOA regulates the market and supervises its participants.
Since 2 January 2023, the equity market has had three compartments: Prestige, Principal and Croissance. Three indices serve as benchmarks: the BRVM Composite, which includes all listed companies, the BRVM 30, which groups the thirty most active stocks over a quarter, and the BRVM Prestige.
Equity and bond markets of the BRVM
The market has 47 listed companies, spread across seven sectors. According to the BRVM, equity market capitalisation passed FCFA 20,000 billion in August 2026: it stood at FCFA 20,036.18 billion on 20 August 2026, a record, up 50.30% from 1 January 2026, whereas it was worth FCFA 836.19 billion when trading began in September 1998.
Financial services account for 44.16% of this capitalisation, telecommunications for 33.36% and basic consumer goods for 12.54%. The top five companies represent 49.16%. Ivorian companies make up the majority of listed stocks.
The bond compartment brings together government securities issued by the Treasuries of the Union, regional bonds, private bonds and sukuk. Issues of public securities are governed by a 2020 instruction, and Ivory Coast ranks first in bond market capitalisation.
Importance of the BRVM for financial integration
The regional exchange allows states, banks and companies in the eight countries to raise capital without going through national stock exchanges. It rests on a common legal framework, the General Regulations of the WAMU, supplemented by the decisions and circulars of the AMF-UMOA, and it forms part of the financial system of the Union, alongside the BCEAO and the BOAD.