Ms Abena Amoah (inset) addressing participants at the symposium. Photo: Ebo Gorman
The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) has submitted proposals to the cabinet for approval to allow ten viable State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) which needed capital injection to raise some through the Accra bourse.
The Managing Director (MD) of the GSE, Abena Amoah, disclosed this during a symposium in Accra last Tuesday and said the companies were among thirty SOEs that qualified to raise capital through the Accra bourse.
The symposium was organised by the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) as part of its 2023 National Pensions Awareness Week Celebration.
The NPRA Week dubbed ‘Pensions Fair’ was on the theme ‘My Pension, My Future’.
Ms Amoah, speaking on the topic “How prepared is the Capital Market for Pension Funds’ Investments 10 Years from Now”, explained that the move was to create an opportunity for qualified SOEs to raise funds from the capital market to finance their operations.
She said the exercise was to shift the burden from the government for capital when such SOEs needed fresh capital injection, explaining that the private pensions sector was growing and needed opportunities to invest their funds.
The NPRA investment guidelines mandate the Corporate Trustee Companies to invest 20 per cent of their funds in the GSE.
She said the GSE, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Public Enterprises, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the State Interest and Governance Authority reviewed all the SOEs and came out with the first list of 30 SoEs which qualified for listing and raising capital through the Accra bourse.
“We have done a paper and submitted to Cabinet and essentially we are waiting approval for the first ten companies to come to the market,” she stated.
Ms Amoah said she was optimistic approval for the proposal would be granted before the end of the year to enable the ten SOEs issue their Initial Public Officers (IPOs) before end of the first quarter next year.
The MD of GSE entreated the Corporate Trustee companies managing the tier-three pension funds which currently stood at GH¢50 billion to build and support advocacy for more companies to be listed on the GSE, adding that it would offer them a lot of opportunities to invest and diversify their investment portfolios.
The Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Corporate Trustees, Thomas Kwesi Esso, also said the NPRA Investment Guidelines mandated the Corporate Trustees to invest about 20 per cent of their capital in the GSE, but they had not been able to do so because the GSE was not big.
He said the GSE had to be expanded so that it could take all the investments from the Corporate Trustees.
The Chief Executive Officer of NPRA, Hayford Atta Krufi, in his remarks, said the symposium was to create opportunity to discuss how the capital market could leverage pension funds on the capital market to increase the opportunities for contributors when they retire so they could have a decent income to live on.
The Deputy Director-General of SEC in charge of Finance, Mr Paul Ababio, urged the Corporate Trustees to diversify their investment portfolios to protect their investment, and also stress the need for more players in the real sector of the economy to be listed on the GSE to raise capital.
Mr Ababio also stressed the need for the Corporate Trustee companies to push their transaction advisors to bring more businesses to the GSE.