Integration of stock exchanges—Ghana, Nigeria take

Story: Boahene Asamoah

THE Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) is exploring possible collaboration with neighbouring stock markets in a bid to create a platform of regional integration of stock markets, the General Manager of the GSE, Mr Ekwow Afedzi, has stated.
He said the “GSE has begun discussions on regional integration with the Nigerian Stock Exchange to harmonise the operations of the two bourses”.
Mr Afedzi made this known during an interaction with the visiting Lord Mayor of the City of London, Rt. Hon. Alderman John Stuttard, and his six-member delegation to the GSE as part of his four-day official visit to the country.
Mr Afedzi’s statement was in response to a suggestion by the Vice Chairperson of the Standard Chartered Bank in charge of Capital Markets, Ms Ann Grant, on the need for the GSE to merge with other neighbouring stock markets to create a regional bourse that could attract the needed investments.
Mr Afedzi said a committee had been set up between the two exchanges to facilitate the integration in the shortest possible time.
The General Manager said the listing of Ecobank Transnational on the three bourses in the West African sub-region — the GSE, the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the Ivorian bourses — was a good platform to integrate the regional markets.
He assured the delegation that the integration of the markets in the sub-region was high on the agenda of the GSE and its Nigerian counterparts.
In her submission, Ms Grant stated that irrespective of the good performance of the Ghana bourse, investors would be interested in bigger markets and called on the GSE to integrate with other regional bourses.
“The reality is that your market is too small in global terms”, she added.
She said “no foreign investor would develop your country for you unless there was equally vibrant domestic investment avenues”.
Ms Grant said Standard Chartered listed on the Ghanaian bourse because the bank wanted to be part of the Ghanaian success.
She said part of the reason for the bank’s growth was the decision to invest in emerging markets and said Ghana was one of the key pillars in the bank’s growth.
She urged the exchange to take advantage of Ghanaians living abroad to ensure a substantial investment back home.
“There must be a way of plugging into this group of people who are doing quite well in the United Kingdom to ensure substantial investments in the economy,” she said.
The Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nii Noi Sowah, mentioned public education as one of the major challenges facing the market and said there was the need to intensify the education of all players on the market.