Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, the Director General of SEC, has announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is embarking on a digitisation programme to strengthen its surveillance role of the capital market.

At a 2022 Investor Webinar Series, dubbed: ‘Interim regulatory compliance portal’ (IRCP), on the theme: “The Future Starts Today: Effective Recovery, Resilience and Continuity Amid Global Market shocks.” Rev. Ogbarmey noted that it would allow market operators to submit returns online.

Rev. Tetteh stated that the long-term vision is to employ the regulatory compliance portal (RCP), as happens in other markets to get into the systems of market operators to pick information at different times.

“If we are submitting information, whether it is online or not, we can still whitewash or doctor it a bit. So, we are exploring the option of being able to get into systems and pick information.”
Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh

Rev. Tetteh admitted, however, that it could have some implications in terms of capability and capacity of the technology put in place.

“But because we are now at the stage of digitising our operations and looking at implementing the IRCP we are looking at all the options.

“We have the interim solution now but going a step further with the main RCP or how we can get in and pick up information. We are looking at how to strengthen our surveillance of the market– both the SEC and the market operators.”
Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh

Public Education

Rev. Ogbarmey disclosed that through SEC’s programme, ‘Time with the SEC,’ the commission embarked on a roadshow to educate Ghanaians. “There are plans to at least, hold it in the regional capitals to be able to engage different pockets of the investing public to let them understand more about the financial sector clean up.”

“Aside from that, we are also looking at some regional offices as currently SEC is just here in Accra. We have a plan to at least set up two more. We are looking at where it will be best to set up a regional office. I am not saying that we will be in all the regional capitals but we looking at some regional offices so that we can cover the wider population.”
Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh

The Chief Investment Officer of Axis Pensions Trust, Nana Wiafe Boamah, on his part, stated that research showed a significant impact of pension funds on capital market development, with the result driven by countries with high financial development.

Mr Boamah noted that broker dealers needed to be more aggressive in pitching stocks while trustees and fund managers execute to the letter, the new investment guideline.

“The Ghana Stock Exchange and Regulators should introduce policies to improve the market breadth, depth and liquidity on the exchange.”
Nana Wiafe Boamah