The Managing Director of Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Ekow Afedzie, has charged Entrepreneurs to use the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) to raise long term capital to expand their businesses.

Mr Ekow Afedzie made this known at an event in Accra to promote the Exchange and bring it to the doorstep of entrepreneurs and businesses, which was sponsored by Mastercard Foundation. The MD noted that the Accra bourse offered entrepreneurs opportunity to raise capital through the main market, the Ghana Alternative Market (GAX) to finance their businesses.

Mr Afedzie advised entrepreneurs to invest in shares and bonds to diversify their investment portfolios, saying that “Without investment, you have no future.”

The Managing Director averred that 2021 was the best performing year for the Ghana Stock Exchange with a return on investment at 43.6 per cent after three years of negative returns. Mr Afedzie said that “Trading on the bond market stood at GH¢208 billion from GH¢5 billion six years ago.”

Mr Afedzie moreover, disclosed the major gainers on the Accra bourse. Some of the major gainers in 2021 were: BOPP (33%), CalBank (14.47%), Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (12.50%), Total Petroleum (9.36%) and GOIL (7.06%).

The Managing Director of GSE pledged that his outfit would continue to do its best for entrepreneurs and local businesses to thrive.

Deliberate Policies to Support Local Businesses

Rosy Fynn, Country Head, MasterCard Foundation and Senior Country Officer, Ghana Cluster of Countries of International Financial Corporation (IFC) delivered the keynote address. In her remarks, she stated that the IFC had invested more than $4 billion for the past decades to boost the Ghanaian economy. She thus, called for deliberate policies to support entrepreneurs and businesses to have access to finance and economic opportunities in the country.

The Country Head of Mastercard Foundation noted that the World Economic Forum 2021 report stated COVID-19 hit entrepreneurship hard, with fewer people starting new businesses and many established businesses failing. Yet she was quick to add that some entrepreneurs are seizing new, emerging opportunities. “The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted all walks of life and entrepreneurs are no different.”

“There are clear indications of a global economic recovery reflected in positive entrepreneurial sentiments on finding new opportunities and starting a business. 2021 shows that entrepreneurial activity has yet to rebound to pre-pandemic levels in most countries.”
Rosy Fynn

Quoting the World Economic Forum report, Ms Fynn disclosed that pandemic-induced restrictions and improving digital infrastructure have accelerated and increased the prevalence of digital technology adoption among low-income countries, where one in two new start-ups expect to increase the use of digital technologies to sell their products.

“However new entrepreneurs embrace digital technologies more than established business owners in all but three economies…There is a need for more incentives and/or training to invest in digital technologies to avoid established businesses being left behind as markets change.”
Rosy Fynn

Ms Fynn lamented about the lack of capital for entrepreneurs to invest. She therefore, urged entrepreneurs and businesses to take advantage of Ghana’s capital market to raise the needed fund for their business development.