Stocks, or fixed income investment outside your country of residence / origin is one of the most difficult decisions to take.

Concerns

- Cost Of doing business like bank charges due to fund remittance, cost of travelling (peculiar to African countries)

- Uncertainty of which product or counter to invest in.

- Limited communication options as you are not physically there.

- Fear of fund repartriation of proceeds and at times burden of capital gain tax.

- Lack of wherewithal to start because of the risk of unknown.

- Inadequate information on how to start as the only popular offshore investment is forex trading which I abhor and classify it as gambling.

- Uncertainty of which broker to use.


Advantages
Stock investment across boarders is an act of creativity

- Exchange rate advantage especially when investing in advanced economies. 10% gain in USD is far better than 10% gain in Ksh .

- Exposure to other economies instead of being limited within the box (your country) as every country is fragile .
Recall Greece, Iceland economic crisis Kenya Election crisis of 2008, Nigeria banking toxic asset crisis of 2009.

- Spreading of Risk across different economies.

- Exposure to investment in other asset classes.
a balanced portfolio consists of Technology, Commodity,Energy, manufacturing, and banking stocks. You cannot invest in Commodity (Gold, metals), Energy (Oil and gas) stocks in Nairobi Stock Exchange. But yes tou can as a world citizen to invest elseway.

In this series which I will take you through as time permits from my busy office schedule, I will divide my program (though not sequencial) into two main atreas :-

(i) Investing in Other African countries.
(ii) Investing Outside Africa with online real time trading account.

Based on my past experiences I will share the nitty critty of all of them right from how to open an account, how to fund your account, what to invest on, how to repartriate your proceeds, and the right approach to various markets.

In Africa it will be limited to Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and South Africa. But I will classify S/ASfrica in the advanced world.

For Overseas I will be looking at US/Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand market, in addition to cross listed European shares in US market as it is not possible for non residents to trade directly in any EU market.

Be rest assured all my postings will be based on my practical experience over the years not theories or hearsay.

ABOUT YOUNG

I am proudly Nigerian, an honest one 48 years by June 7. 7th child in a family of nine. Young actually my pet name. I joined this forum in 2007.
I am a computer Scientist by profession and I have been working in Nigerian subsidiary of Italian based oil and gas multinational ENI group (listed in NYSE and Milan, Italy bourse)called Nigerian Agip Oil Company since 1988. Married with 3 kids aged between 8 and 16.
Started investing in my local bourse Nigerian Stock Exchange in year 2000.
Started off shore investment in Ghana and Kenya in 2004. Started online real time trading in US, Asia and Oceania in 2005.
Have experienced market burst and booms in all markets.
Hope to voluntary retire from active service a couple of years. Widely travelled to several African countries and Europe / US.
I believe in Africa and the unfolding investment opportunities.

As a busy scientist my thoughts flow faster than my English grammer, apologies for grammatical errors here and there,

safeguards before investing off shore


Before you venture overseas, gain sufficient practical experience in your local bourse to avoid losses.
You definately require some gestation period to study and understand where you are heading to.
I pencilled down Nairobi bourse to invest in 2002 but did not make the practical move until 2004.
I took time to study the market in terms of the fundamentals and my first two counters were KCB at 58 and KPLC at 79 bob. You do not need to rush.

From your local burse you must be able to deal with bears an d bulls and also the basic fundamentals PE, PBR,NAV,EPS , DIV YIELD,EXCEPTIONAL ITEMS,CASH FLOW STAT, BAL Sheet, PL Account etc

Charity begins at home, they say.

LET PART OF YOUR FUNDS BE MANAGED BY FUND MANAGERS

There is no way you will be more knowlegeable than the best fund managers, give part of your funds to be managed by intelligent well tested fund manager either locally or overseas.
When I look inwards to me country Nigeria, I did not see any fund manager that manages part of their portfolio off shore that is thinking outside the box.

After much reseasrch, I came across two fund managers in Africa that satisfied or were close to satisfying my needs :-

Dry Associates in Kenya
Databank of Ghana (Epack, Bfund and Mfund)

There may be numerous other ones I do not know about

DRY ASSOCIATES INVESTMENT BANK OF KENYA

www.dryassociates.com

I was particularly interested in FRANKLIN TEMPLETON MUTUAL FUNDS which they are agents.
Here one have option to invest in a basket of 41 mutual funds in various foreign currencies

The problem I had was that the minimum capital to invest was USD 5,000 which from my judgement was on the high side as I could not afford it. I always believe in starting small and building up over time if the returns is encouraging.
I recommend this product for those who can afford it and they (dry associates) have investment advisors to guide you on a product that suits your risk appetide and the conditions attached (like minimum tenure).
Their website, call or visit can give you further guidance.

Be aware I am not their clients, but have visited their westlands office in one of my trips to Nairobi.

DATABANK OF GHANA BFUND PRODUCT

BFUND means balanced fund this means

50 percent of the funds is invested in Ghana equities and nine african stock markets listed above

The Other 50 percent is invested in Ghana fixed income securities like Demand (fixed deposits), govt /corporate bonds, commercial papers and other fixed income products.

For details check out www.databankgroup.com

I subscribed to this product just last year to create a balance to over exposure to only equities.