Kigali: Rwanda’s capital market regulator approved the listing of shares in Nation Media Group Ltd., East Africa’s biggest media company, on the country’s over-the-counter market.

“We approved on condition of fulfilling pending things like submitting an information-disclosure document,” Robert Mathu, executive director of the Capital Market Advisory Council, or CMAC, said in a phone interview today from Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya. “They could cross-list toward the end of this month.”

Nation Media will be the second company to trade on the Rwandan exchange after Kenya Commercial Bank Ltd. listed its shares there in 2009, Mathu said. Nation Media, owned by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development SA, has its primary listing in Nairobi. The company first announced plans in March to list in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

“Nation Media’s listing gives investors in Rwanda an opportunity to participate in the leading media company in the region, and gets Rwanda to participate in regional integration of East Africa’s capital markets,” Mathu said.

Apart from Kenya Commercial, six bonds also trade on the Rwandan market, including a two-year, 2.5 billion-franc ($4.3 million) security sold last month, according to the Rwandan central bank. A combined 21.5 billion Rwandan francs has been raised through bond sales on the Rwandan market since 2008, according to CMAC data.

On average, about 8,400 shares currently trade on the Rwandan market every month, generating turnover of 1.4 million francs, according CMAC data.

“It is a small market, but promising to grow,” Mathu said, “We expect an initial public offer by Bralirwa from the private sector this year.”

Rwanda’s government plans to offer 25 percent of Brasseries et Limonaderies du Rwanda SA, the brewer known as Bralirwa, to public investors, the New Times, a Kigali-based newspaper, reported in April. An additional 5 percent will be sold to Heineken NV, which already owns 70 percent of the company, it said.