Ekow Afedzie (3rd right) and other business champions at the summit
EKOW AFEDZIE, Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), says Ghana’s recovery efforts from the COVID-19 pandemic offers new opportunities for all citizens to accelerate growth and development.
Speaking at the maiden edition of The Money Summit on Tuesday in Accra, Mr. Afedzie said there was the need to share ownership of business organisations so that these could raise the needed capital to grow and expand.
He said the call for a mindset shift towards the sharing of ownership that focused on value and not volume was well placed, hence the appeal to all to partner with the GSE “to work and grow our capital markets by running an economy that promotes and rewards the culture of savings.
“If we widen financial inclusion, through financial literacy outreaches and digitisation, those savings will turn into investments. And those investments in turn will be the catalyst that propels business and economic growth and resilience, as well as wealth creation for all.”
Calling for transparency and accountability to be embraced in Ghana’s organisational culture to promote efficiency and trust in the financial sector, he emphasised, “We have set up three (3) markets so far to achieve this i.e. the Main Market, the Ghana Alternative Market (or GAX) and our Fixed Income Market (GFIM).
“The GSE’s markets cater for you, whether you seek to raise GH¢250,000 or more than GH¢1.00 billion; whether you seek new shareholders to give you permanent capital or seek to issue long-term bonds – three years, five years, 10 years, 20 years and so on; there is a GSE market for you – an SME, a large corporate, government or a quasi-government institution.”
According to him, the GSE had also facilitated the raising of over GH¢16 billion by companies in these markets, and several more billions by the Government of Ghana. “The need to ensure the right balance between stock and debt financing options should be considered as critical by organisations,’’ he said.
“The GSE’s markets provide you with viable investment opportunities whether you have savings of GH¢100 or you manage over GH¢30 billion in assets. We are the best performing market in Africa so far this year, with gains of 24.56% on our main market for shares. Since 1990, the average annual returns on the GSE as measured by its composite index, is 25%. We have traded over GH¢340 billion in shares and debt securities, and issuers on our markets have paid out billions in dividends, interest income and taxes,” he averred.
He also called for the launch of various digital tools by market players to provide more convenience and speed for their customers, revealing that GSE automated its trading systems back in 2008, which had made the switch over to automation during this COVID-19 period without much hustle.
A Business Desk Report