SECTIONS
African Capital Markets: Challenges and Opportunities

GHANA

AUTHOR

Ivy Hesse, CFA, CIPM
Founder and Principal Consultant, Synercate

Ghana is endowed with precious metals—gold, in particular—and hydrocarbons. Unsurprisingly then, the dominant sector on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) is mining (69%), but financials is also sizeable at 21% and is the fastest-growing sector in terms of listings. The finance sector dominates trading activity too. 
Capital markets in Ghana, in common with some other developing markets, are plagued with issues of disclosure, a dearth of listings, low financial knowledge, the small size of issues, and low trade volumes. 
Initiatives to address these issues include the launch of the Ghana Alternative Market for smaller companies, permission for derivatives trading, and in 2018, the creation of the Ghana Commodity Exchange. Longer-standing incentives include a zero capital gains tax on GSE securities and Ghana’s promotion of West African capital market integration. 
The Ghana Fixed Income Market (GFIM) is larger than its equity equivalent with listed debt of USD14.7 billion (compared with USD10.9 billion of listed equity on the GSE). 
Fund management is growing with a developing middle class and offers mainly vanilla equity and debt strategies. Recent legal changes now allow the marketing of  
non-traditional asset classes too. 
To bolster investment, the GSE is leveraging technology to give investors access to better information and to improve financial literacy. 

GHANA

Do you know....?

YOU'RE RIGHT!

Answer: Startup. The GAX focuses on businesses with potential for growth and allows companies at various stages of their development: startups as well as existing enterprises, small and medium sized.

VERY CLOSE!

Answer: Startup. The GAX focuses on businesses with potential for growth and allows companies at various stages of their development: startups as well as existing enterprises, small and medium sized.