Trading of securities on the Angolan Stock and Debt Exchange (Bodiva) is scheduled to begin in December, said the chairman of the Capital Markets Commission (CMC), Archer Mangueira, quoted by local media.

Mr Mangueira said the CMC is taking the final steps so that investors can trade the first securities on the bourse in December.

The launching of the stock exchange aims to diversify the country’s economy, said Mr Mangueira, adding that the trading of securities will be an important contributor to gross domestic product.

The chairman of Bodiva, António Furtado, said last July that the market would start operations with the trade of treasury bonds.

“The first step will be taken by trading public debt and only later with company stocks,” Mr Furtado said at the time, according to newspaper Jornal de Angola.