As an Exchange we do have challenges – GSE to Akufo-Addo

The Ghana Stocks Exchange has petitioned government to restore some tax incentives for indigenous investors that will be interested in raising equity in the capital market to expand their businesses.

According to Managing Director of Ghana Stocks Exchange, Ekow Afedzie, getting Ghanaian businesses on the market will boost its relevance.

He made this revelation at a meeting with President Nana Akufo-Addo, who was on familiarization tour at Ghana’s local bourse.

“But as an Exchange we do have challenges. One of the key ones is how do we get more companies on this market? How do we get Ghanaian entrepreneurs to utilize this market, to raise money, to raise long term funding? We will keep on doing the education. We will keep on creating incentives internally for them, but we also need to get the government to look at various policies that can also help and attract some of these companies to also go out there and raise capital on this market.

He further indicated that the relevance of the Exchange is dependent on the ability of companies to generate enough capital to expand and grow while also creating employment.

“We’ve tried tax incentives before, for a short while, maybe we can look at it again, to see how best that can attract some of the companies to utilize the market. Because this is very important in making the stock exchange become relevant in the development of this economy. If we don’t get companies to raise capital where they can expand and grow and employ more people, then the Stock Exchange has no relevance, and that is why it is important that we keep on hammering on the fact that we need to get Ghanaian entrepreneurs, Ghanaian companies to raise more capital through this market”.

Ghana Stock Exchange records ¢194 million in traded shares from January to June

Meanwhile, the Ghana Stock Exchange on July 8, 2020, recorded a total of more than 262.2 million traded shares valued at ¢194 million in the first six months of 2020 amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus crisis.

The performance, from January to June 2020, represents 107.9 percent growth in volumes and 87.7 percent in value traded for the same period in 2019. On a month-on-month basis, trading volumes recorded a dip of 16 percent at the end of June after an impressive run in May 2020.

A volume of 60.74 million shares were recorded at the end of June compared with 72.61 million shares in May.

This resulted in a total value of GH¢ 46.983 million recorded in June 2020 as against ¢47.825 million recorded at the end of May 2020, representing a slight fall of 1.76 percent.

Daily average value recorded in June was ¢2.174 million compared to GH¢ 2.517 million recorded in May 2020.

The GSE Composite index at the end of June 2020 continued the downward trend to record a decline of-15.83 percent (YTD) compared to the-14.01 percent (YTD) recorded at the end of May 2020.

On the bonds market, trade volume for the first six months were up 49.7 percent over the same period in 2019.

Again the half-year trade volume of 49,519 million is 89 percent of the total trade volume in 2019,” the Ghana Stock Exchange said.

The volume of securities traded for the month of June 2020 increased by 145 million from the May 2020 figure of more than 8.8 billion while the liquidity of the market went up to 54 percent at the end of June from 32 percent in May, 2020.