Accra, Ghana//-Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) and the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) today signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to attract more local and foreign companies to list on the local bourse.
Both parties described the move as timely as the country aims to open its profitable stock market to all legal businesses across the globe.
Speaking at the signing ceremony in Accra, the Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange, Ekow Afedzie said the spirit behind the partnership is that both parties know very well about the market and believe that the market can grow.
He said: “We do align with the strategy of making Ghana the most preferred investment destination. Indeed, one of the three key pillars of our three-year strategy plan is how to make the GSE the preferred platform for raising capital for investing in Ghana and across West Africa”.
Mr Afedzie was quick to add that they are also looking at how to become an emerging market player to attract more investments into the GSE.
“One of the key pillars is how to transform Ghana from frontier market to emerging one. Without investment in equities, it is going to be difficult for the country to develop. Short term debt and government issuances do not develop a country”, he stated.
Equities and direct investments into productive sectors of the economy such as manufacturing and agric are very key in growing the country’s economy.
As part of the GSE’s strategy, investment education is very crucial for us and therefore we are partnering with the GIPC to attract more investors to list on the exchange, the MD emphasized.
Going forward as a stock exchange, we will team up the Diaspora investment desk that the GIPC set up to attract more Ghanaians in the diaspora and other foreigners to list their businesses on the GSE, according to Mr Afedzie.
On his part, the CEO of GIPC, Yofi Grant said: “We actually do a lot of outreach programmes to meet specific investors outside the country. We are actually going to carry along the GSE as a partner in almost all of these endeavours”.
He believes that it will inure to the mutual benefit of the two institutions and the country at large and its trajectory of transformation growth.
The Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Rev Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh who witnessed the signing, saidthe partnership would drive more capital on the GSE.
Advantages of listing on the GSE
They argued that by listing on the GSE, companies could get the much needed capital to expand their operations to other parts of the country and even beyond.
There are several advantages of listing on the local bourse such as getting cheaper source of funds, and ability to attract more investors.
Also, listing on the stock exchange experts say lower the perceived risk by investors due to solid and sound regulations.
When a company lists on the GSE, it has the ability to access long term loans at lower interest rates, attracts and retains skills.
It also has the capacity to attract strategic technical partners through private placements. In the Ghanaian stock exchange like others, there are opportunities for dual listing for companies which are listed on the GSE and other foreign bourses.
They insisted that despite having gone through different economic cycles of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine crisis, the GSE is still very vibrant.
African Eye Report
