EPACK expands access points

Story: Boahene Asamoah

DATABANK, the manager of the mutual fund, EPACK, has created a special account for Ghanaians living abroad to enable them to make medium and long-term investments to meet their financial commitments.
The Databank Homecoming Account will help Ghanaians living outside the country to meet their financial needs in the areas of real estate, retirement income, education of their wards and children and provide seed capital for start-ups.
The Executive Chairman of Databank, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, said at the eighth annual general meeting of the EPACK in Accra on Tuesday that the product was the company’s innovation “to expand access points”.
He stated that since March this year, the company had entered into a distribution alliance with Zenith Bank Ghana Limited, to ensure that shareholders made payments into their EPACK accounts as well as withdrew cheques at all the branches of the bank.
“We are also investigating the possibility of collaborating with some information communication technology companies in the country to introduce a system which would enable investors to top up their EPACK accounts through the use of their mobile phones and special investment scratch cards,” Mr Ofori-Atta stated.
Giving details of the fund’s performance for last year, the executive chairman said the fund’s share price appreciated by 32 per cent to GH¢ 0.5708 (¢5,708) from the GH¢0.4341 (¢4,341) it recorded in 2005.
He said the fund’s market capitalisation rose by 40 per cent from GH¢10.56 million (¢105.6 billion) in 2005 to GH¢38.2 million (¢382 billion) compared to a 19 per cent appreciation in the market capitalisation of the Ghana Stock Exchange.
Mr Ofori-Atta stated that during the year under review, 9,559 new shareholders joined the fund, compared to 2,541 investors who closed their accounts.
On the outlook for this year, the chairman said “even though the stability of the economy has suffered some momentary shocks as a result of the current energy crisis and volatility in the global petroleum market, we expect the Ghanaian economy to continue to be resilient”.
He added that investors’ interest in the local market had been growing steadily and mentioned the oversubscription of the five-year Government of Ghana Bond last year as a testimony to growing investor confidence.
In a related development, the company announced a 14.47 per cent annualised yield in the Databank Money Market Fund (Mfund) as compared to the average savings rate of five per cent for the 2006 financial year.
Mr Ofori-Atta stated that given the average inflation rate of 10.24 per cent in 2006, the fund gave shareholders a real return of over four per cent during the period under review.
He said the fund’s value increased from GH¢7.28 million (¢72.8 billion) in December 2005 to GH¢11.76 billion (¢117.6 billion) at the end of last year.
He said the main challenge facing the fund was how to find new investment avenues which would not only provide yields higher than the inflation rate, but also offer better returns than those on comparable financial instruments of duration within 12 months.
“In addition, we will maximise our investments in high-yielding, but save commercial papers and certificates of deposits,” Mr Ofori-Atta said.