London Stock Exchange (LSE) is partnering with the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) to develop the capital markets. The partnership with the LSE will help develop some of the capital market’s infrastructure that can sustain and deepen the financial market.
Mr Adam Afriyie, the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of a meeting with the management of the GSE, commended the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia for supporting the initiative.
The two bodies agreed to cooperate to build partnerships, deepen and tighten harmonisation following a cooperation agreement on the sidelines of the second edition of the Ghana/UK Business Council Meetings in London in February 2019.
He said what the partnership seeks to do was to bring in the LSE and the GSE, so that Ghana can have access to a wide web of investment and access to financial input and capital.
He said hopefully, from these meetings “we can drive our expertise from the UK to help enhance the level of capital and investments coming into Ghana.”
He said on the ground, people would start accessing job opportunities because there were investments coming from overseas into Ghanaian companies.
He said this would be done through listings of Ghanaian companies on the GSE and LSE so that people overseas could invest in Ghanaian government initiatives.
“I will be delighted to see something like bonds from the diaspora; because there are a number of Ghanaians in the UK and the world at large so it will be gratifying for them to re-invest in companies in Ghana,” he added.
The Trade Envoy said the initiative was important because the UK government wants to come up with a way to support Ghana to reach a certain stage of maturity in the financial market and there was a lot more liquidity and a lot more shares on offer to Ghanaian citizens and to those overseas.
Mr Afriyie said the President spoke about Ghana beyond aid and this was part of that vision, via introducing huge sums of money into Ghana through the stock exchange, bonds and the financial market and its part of that vision.
“The UK Government stands ready to support that vision and process, hence the initiative,” he added.
He said there was approximately nine trillion worth of capital available but at the moment Ghana could only access 360 million of that capital, so there was a huge difference and a huge amount of capital weighing on the market, which could come to Ghana.
On why Ghana was chosen, he said it was because of its democratic stability and the long-standing relationship between the two countries in terms of language, same legal system, customs and a very well energetic and well-educated population.
Mr Afriyie is in Ghana to participate in the third edition of the UK- Ghana Business Council (UK-GBC) Regional Forum.
The forum will prioritise areas like agriculture/agro-processing, financial services, extractives, pharmaceuticals, textiles and garments and digital.
The Business Council, which meets twice a year, brings both governments together to find ways to reduce barriers to trade, investment and job creation. The forum is a vehicle to move forward a new strategic economic partnership between the UK and Ghana that focuses on increased trade and investment and additionally emphasizes on the development of priority sectors of the Ghanaian economy that leads to job creation and sustained economic growth.
