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Brokers’ common passport to flag-off W/African Stock Exchange
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Olaseni Oduwole (r), head, corporate finance, Sterling Capital, with Kolade Oyegbesan, head, financial control, at the Sterling Capital product relaunch of Frontier Fund and Nigerian Energy Sector Fund in Lagos, yesterday.
Three West African countries are working towards the creation of a common passport for brokers to kick-start the operation of the proposed West African Stock Exchange.
The three countries, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria, are planning to integrate their respective stock exchanges after the common passport must have been finalised.
According to Ekow Afedzie, general manager of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), the three countries are discussing the modalities for the issue of the common passport and nothing has been agreed yet.
Afedzie made this known at the launch of the commencement of work on the automation of the GSE in Accra on Thursday.
He said brokers in Ghana would be required to have $100 to be able to trade in the West African Stock Exchange; Ivorian brokers must have $500, while their Nigerian counterparts have to render $800. The amount required for the brokers depends on the size of the capital market of the various countries.
David Tetteh, chief executive officer of CAL Brokers, told Business Day that the integration of the three bourses would expand the capital market in West Africa and attract foreign investors to the sub-region.
“I think it is in our interest to have heavily capitalised brokerage companies. That will deepen trading,” Tetteh stated.
On the automation of the trading platform, K. S. Yamoah, managing director of the GSE, said it is being executed at a cost of $1.88-million. The project is expected to be completed by the end of June. The automation is being supported by the Ghana Government under its Economic Management and Capacity Building Project.
Infotech of Pakistan is the vendor undertaking the automation. The GSE has also reached an agreement with the vendor to provide it an automated clearing and settlement system and a depository which are expected to be ready by the end of 2008.
Stating that positive macro-environment and favourable market conditions informed the launch of the automation, Yamoah noted that “in effect, there couldn’t have been a better time than now to move on and have the Exchange’s trading and other processes fully automated.”
He said the automation was to achieve efficiency and come closer to international standards in the market place and therefore put Ghana in a stronger position to compete as an investment destination.
He noted that it would also help improve liquidity, especially for retail investors, and reduce risks associated with the market, including loss of certificates, impersonation and fraud; adding that it would improve surveillance of trading and related activities.
With market capitalisation of 12.37-billion Ghanaian cedis at the close of 2007, the GSE has 32 listed companies, with three more planning to list later this year.
But Tetteh wished to see 10 to 15 companies listed in order to accelerate growth. Its All Index is currently at 31.8 percent and the volume of shares traded is 287.2-million.
Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, minister of finance, said the automation was long overdue and called on Infotech to complete the project on schedule.
Baah-Wiredu said the government has issued two long-term bonds, the five-year fixed rate bond and the $750-million Eurobond, on the domestic and international markets respectively.
“In addition, many two and three-year fixed-rate bonds together with the five-year domestic bonds were all listed in furtherance of the objective of developing Ghana’s capital market,” he said.
According to Ekow Afedzie, general manager of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), the three countries are discussing the modalities for the issue of the common passport and nothing has been agreed yet.
Afedzie made this known at the launch of the commencement of work on the automation of the GSE in Accra on Thursday.
He said brokers in Ghana would be required to have $100 to be able to trade in the West African Stock Exchange; Ivorian brokers must have $500, while their Nigerian counterparts have to render $800. The amount required for the brokers depends on the size of the capital market of the various countries.
David Tetteh, chief executive officer of CAL Brokers, told Business Day that the integration of the three bourses would expand the capital market in West Africa and attract foreign investors to the sub-region.
“I think it is in our interest to have heavily capitalised brokerage companies. That will deepen trading,” Tetteh stated.
On the automation of the trading platform, K. S. Yamoah, managing director of the GSE, said it is being executed at a cost of $1.88-million. The project is expected to be completed by the end of June. The automation is being supported by the Ghana Government under its Economic Management and Capacity Building Project.
Infotech of Pakistan is the vendor undertaking the automation. The GSE has also reached an agreement with the vendor to provide it an automated clearing and settlement system and a depository which are expected to be ready by the end of 2008.
Stating that positive macro-environment and favourable market conditions informed the launch of the automation, Yamoah noted that “in effect, there couldn’t have been a better time than now to move on and have the Exchange’s trading and other processes fully automated.”
He said the automation was to achieve efficiency and come closer to international standards in the market place and therefore put Ghana in a stronger position to compete as an investment destination.
He noted that it would also help improve liquidity, especially for retail investors, and reduce risks associated with the market, including loss of certificates, impersonation and fraud; adding that it would improve surveillance of trading and related activities.
With market capitalisation of 12.37-billion Ghanaian cedis at the close of 2007, the GSE has 32 listed companies, with three more planning to list later this year.
But Tetteh wished to see 10 to 15 companies listed in order to accelerate growth. Its All Index is currently at 31.8 percent and the volume of shares traded is 287.2-million.
Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, minister of finance, said the automation was long overdue and called on Infotech to complete the project on schedule.
Baah-Wiredu said the government has issued two long-term bonds, the five-year fixed rate bond and the $750-million Eurobond, on the domestic and international markets respectively.
“In addition, many two and three-year fixed-rate bonds together with the five-year domestic bonds were all listed in furtherance of the objective of developing Ghana’s capital market,” he said.
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