Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance has charged the newly inaugurated Board of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to work competently to drive economic growth. This, he said, will be key in Ghana’s economic transformation agenda.
According to Mr Ofori-Atta, the Securities and Exchange Commission is important to the growth of the capital market which is crucial to the development of the country. He thus, tasked SEC to ensure that it regulates and streamlines the development of the capital market to make it more effective and efficient for the development of the Ghanaian economy.
“The role of SEC in the capital market is key to the development of the country. The challenges are enormous and the issue of the gap between our short term funds and how to reconstitute our long term funds is very crucial to our development. And so, your role in facilitating and promoting this is key to Ghana’s transformation.”
Ken Ofori-Atta
The Finance Minister however, applauded the Exchange and acknowledged that, it has done well in 2020 and the first half-year of 2021.
“The year has not been that bad. The stock exchange has done reasonably well and market capitalization has climbed up to about GH¢63 billion with an all-time high trade involvement recorded in 2020 which is GH¢180 billion halfway through 2021.
“For those who took the risk to steer SEC to this path, I think they have done very well indeed. But, we should not start and stop as we have been doing in the past. However, all of this needs the infrastructure for long term financing, and this is where the SEC has to be clearly innovative about.”
Ken Ofori-Atta
Mr Ofori-Atta further noted that improving access to long-term finance would be a key enabler for achieving the objectives of the government’s GH¢100 billion Ghana Cares/Obatanpa programme, which is aimed at helping the economy recover from the impact of COVID-19.
However, Ken Ofori-Atta asserted that, despite the challenges encountered, the Ghanaian Financial Sector has made some significant progress.
“The Capital Market over the last few years has made some key achievements including the significant growth reached in market capitalization of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE). In the asset management industry, clean up exercise has helped to restore and rebuild investor confidence in the industry.”
Ken Ofori-Atta
In addition, he also named the removal of Ghana from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list and the launch of the Capital Market Master Plan this year to provide the blueprint for the development of the Capital Market in Ghana, among others as the key strides the Exchange has made over the years.
He also opined that the above projects show the important role SEC is playing to champion the future of Ghana’s economic transformation and to making it an attractive hub for investors.
In the intervening time, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has inaugurated an eleven-member board of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The privileged board has Dr Yeboah Amoah as the Chairman.
The reconstitution of the Board was in line with the Securities Industries Act, 2016 (Act 929) as amended.
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