The Director-General of SEC, Adu Anane Antwi, explained that establishment of the Fund is necessary to resolve one of the three major challenges inhibiting trading activities in the securities market.
Mr. Anane Antwi observed at the launch of the Ghana Investment Awards in Accra that the other challenges stakeholders in the securities industry are trying to address, to boost trading activities in the country, include liquidity issues as well as the listing of more companies on the bourse, which he said is inadequate.
“We recognise that we cannot do investor education on a sustainable basis if there are no funds. It costs money to undertake educational programmes on the various media platforms and also during our capital market week, which has been set aside to educate people on securities matters.
“We don’t have the resources to do all. So the idea is to set up an Investor Education Fund whereby we can appeal to the corporate world for contributions toward building the Fund.
“But we need some regulations and Legislative Instruments (LI) to back it, so we are working to establish the Fund through an LI before we can appeal for the investor community to contribute to the Fund so we can move frequently to do the investor education,” he said.
Mr. Anane Antwi said SEC will not be able to estimate the seed money needed for the Fund until the LI, which forms part of the review of the SEC law, has been passed by Parliament.
“All the financial institutions depend on clients. If people understand investments, then they can put their money into the banks for them to get deposits. So it is for all of us to come together to help build the Investor Education Fund,” he said.
He said SEC is throwing its weight behind the Ghana Investment Awards, which is in its third year, to help in its mandate to promote the orderly growth and development of an efficient, fair and transparent securities market in which investors and the integrity of the market are protected through proactive implementation of the Securities Laws.
This year’s Awards event scheduled for the August 3 is on the theme “Promoting Investor Education and Awareness for a Sustainable Investment Drive”, and seeks to recognise excellence among the 88 licenced Investment Banking Firms in the country.
In all, 13 categories of awards will be presented on the Awards and Dinner Night: including two new awards, Advertising Campaign of the Year and Deal of the Year.
Source: Business & Financial Times
