Integration of W/A capital markets on course

Plans to integrate capital markets in the West African sub-region to enable them to trade across markets are still on course, with December 2015 as the scheduled implementation date.

The member countries taking part in the integration include the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Nigerian Stock Exchange, Sierra Leone Stock Exchange and the Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilieres, which covers eight francophone countries.

The first phase of the integration programme, which is the sponsored access, commenced in April 2014 and subsequently a sensitisation workshop was held in Accra in February 2014 for market operators and other stakeholders.

The Chairman of the Council of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Mr Sam Mensah, said Ghana had actively participated in the integration agenda last year and would, therefore, continue to play its role to ensure that the dream was achieved.

“To further promote the agenda, promotional materials will be developed for distribution, as well as adverts to educate the general investing public on the integration project to enable them take advantage of a bigger integrated market,” he said at the Annual General Meeting of the GSE in Accra.

Achieving integration will facilitate momentous growth in the markets, which will empower the region to remain relevant in attracting investment inflows by creating a much larger market for local and international businesses.

Phases of integration

The integration, which is the third after two failed attempts, began with a first phase which looked at giving sponsored access to brokers from other capital markets to trade securities as well as settle in markets other than the home countries.

The first phase which was scheduled to commence in April 2014 was sponsored access which was to enable entities that were not direct market operators of an exchange to participate in the exchange by granting them direct access to the exchange’s trading facility via technology.

The second phase of the integration is where qualified brokers who meet certain standards receive a common passport to enable them trade directly in any of the markets across West Africa.

The third phase, which is the final phase, will see the actualisation of the establishment of a virtual West African Securities Market (WASM) by December 2015.

GSE Performance in 2014

The harsh economic conditions in the country impacted negatively on the GSE. The GSE Composite Index which measures the performance of the entire market made a marginal gain of 5.4 per cent, compared with the 78.8 per cent recorded in 2013.

Total volume of trade for 2014 stood at 207 million shares, valued at GH¢346 million, compared to the volume and value of 313 million shares amounting to GH¢456 million recorded in 2013.

The market capitalisation for all listed securities at the end of December 2014 was GH¢64.4 billion, compared to GH¢61.2 billion for 2013, an increase of 5.2 per cent.

The GSE recorded a profit after tax of GH¢4.18 million, compared to the GH¢1.04 million it made in 2013. GB