Angola’s financial exchange plans to start trading selected shares and corporate bonds by the end of this year, Pedro Pitta Groz, the body’s Executive Commission President, told news agency Bloomberg.

“There are some banks and telecommunications companies interested” in listing their securities, Mr Groz stated.

Angola’s bourse, known as Bolsa de Dívida e Valores de Angola, or Bodiva, will likely have a market capitalisation equal to 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product within 18 months of starting, according to the report.

Banco Angolano de Investimentos SA, the country’s largest lender measured by assets, and Banco de Fomento Angola SA, have already joined Bodiva, Mr Groz told Bloomberg. Other lenders are expected to do so soon, he added.

The exchange began trading government bonds last December.