Uganda has ordered telecoms operators in the country to list on the local bourse, the Capital Markets Authority said on Wednesday.

The telcos, have been given two years to list at least 20% of their shares on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE).

“In 60 days we want to have issued new licenses and then two years from then all the players should have listed at least 20% of their shares on the Uganda Stock Exchange (USE),” said Ibrahim Bbosa, spokesman for the regulator Uganda Communications Commission (UCC).

Statistics from UCC show the country of 43 million now boasts an estimated 24 million mobile subscribers and 21.6 million internet users.

USE is a small bourse of 18 companies and had its most recent listing in September last year after going six years without a single IPO.