A Deep Dive Study on the Impact of Regulatory Interventions

This report by FSD Africa evaluates the Africa Regulatory Support Programme (ARSP), which provided technical assistance to capital markets regulators across Africa from September 2018 to March 2023. The document outlines key lessons from interventions in eight countries and three regional blocs, emphasizing the need to balance international best practices with local context, the challenges of regulatory and market capacity, and the importance of sequencing and clustering interventions for maximum impact.

• Regulatory interventions are most effective when they combine international best practices with local stakeholder input and domestic context. For example, FSD Africa provided tax advisory support to the Ethiopian Capital Markets Authority (ECMA), resulting in a background paper identifying 25 issues in existing tax policy and 16 actionable recommendations.
• Stakeholder engagement and alignment with national development agendas are critical for success. In Zambia, the development of a ten-year capital markets master plan (CMMP) involved a wide range of regulators, government institutions, and market participants, leading to the inclusion of capital markets development as an explicit priority in the 8th National Development Plan (8NDP).
• Human resource and capacity constraints at both the regulator and market participant levels frequently hinder the implementation of intervention outputs. In the WAEMU region, the Islamic regulatory framework launched in January 2023 faced delays in market uptake because capacity and financial constraints limited the regulator's ability to conduct necessary education workshops.
• Bureaucratic processes and external shocks—such as government changes, sovereign debt challenges, and the COVID-19 pandemic—can slow the formal ratification of policies and dampen market momentum.
• Strategic interventions can succeed even in challenging macroeconomic environments, but a lack of political buy-in or extreme instability may justify cancelling interventions. FSD Africa abandoned planned interventions in Tanzania and Zimbabwe due to a lack of political buy-in and a challenging macroeconomic context, respectively.
• Interventions should be sequenced and clustered rather than carried out in isolation to maximize impact. The report cites the update of Kenya's Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) regulations in 2023 as an example that could have benefited from a phased, long-term roadmap including market-side interventions and capacity building.
• There is a strong demand from regulators for formalized implementation support following the delivery of final documents. Suggested support includes handholding for one year post-completion, practical learning visits to developed markets like the UK, India, and Malaysia, and the secondment of experienced regulators.
• Future regulatory efforts are expected to shift focus toward green and sustainable finance and gender inclusion once foundational capital market regulations are established. While Zambia's CMMP included green bonds, most previous interventions were gender agnostic.

APA

FSD Africa (2024). A Deep Dive Study on the Impact of Regulatory Interventions. https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Impact-of-Regulatory-Interventions-19.02.24-1.pdf

Chicago

FSD Africa. A Deep Dive Study on the Impact of Regulatory Interventions. 2024. https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Impact-of-Regulatory-Interventions-19.02.24-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=FSD Africa |title=A Deep Dive Study on the Impact of Regulatory Interventions |date=January 2024 |url=https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Impact-of-Regulatory-Interventions-19.02.24-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{fsdafrica2024deep, author = {{FSD Africa}}, title = {{A Deep Dive Study on the Impact of Regulatory Interventions}}, institution = {FSD Africa}, year = {2024}, month = jan, url = {https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Impact-of-Regulatory-Interventions-19.02.24-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }