Understanding of Ghana’s capital market very limited – SEC Boss

The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched this year Capital Market Week with the aim of raising awareness of stock market activities within selected tertiary institutions in six regional capitals in the country.

The week-long event, which starts on Monday, October 29, 2012, begins with a public lecture on the “Capital Market: An investment avenue for securing  your future well-being.”

Speaking at the launch, the Director-General of the commission, Mr Adu Anane Antwi, said the understanding of the activities of the capital market had been very limited; hence, many people, including government officials, business operators, state institutions and students had all shied away from the market.

Present at the launch were Prof. E. V. O. Dankwa, Chairman of the Commission; Dr Charles Asembre, a member and Mr Ekow Afedzie, the Deputy Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange.

Mr Antwi said activities of the week would be centred in Accra, Kumasi, Sunyani, Koforidua, Cape Coast and Takoradi and would be targeted  at university and other tertiary students.

According to the SEC, a recent survey commissioned by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning on urban and rural  adults concluded that financial literacy on the whole was very low.

The Director-General pointed out that the lack of financial literacy in the country was a major hindrance to the development of the financial sector and this was equally having a negative effect on the national economy.

Mr Antwi pointed out that consumers, including students and academicians, lacked the financial literacy to make informed decisions, and at the same time the privileged few who had some knowledge about securities equally lacked the intimate understanding of how the market really worked. He was, therefore, of the view that by the end of the celebration, the general public, especially students, would have a better appreciation of the workings of the capital market.

The theme, he said, was carefully chosen to emphasize the importance of the capital market in providing investment opportunities that would lead to personal wealth creation for the individual’s secured future. He said the capital market held the key to unlock the great economic potential of the country; hence, the need for a national crusade to create awareness and get all to use the capital market as the key to wealth creation.

Source: Daily Graphic