The Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Abena Amoah, has urged businesses and corporate to the GSE to raise patient capital to finance their operations rather than relying heavily on debt.
She said the strong performance of the GSE, coupled with increased trading activity and renewed interest from investors, made the bourse an attractive avenue for businesses seeking long-term funding.
Speaking in Accra last Friday at the launch of the updated GSE Sustainability Disclosure Guidance Manual, Ms Amoah said the equities market had recorded a 73 per cent year-to-date gain, making it one of the best-performing exchanges globally.
“The GSE is liquid and one of the best-performing exchanges in Africa. Businesses must take advantage of the market to raise capital to finance their operations and growth,” she said.
She noted that the exchange had recorded significant activity on both its equity and debt markets, signalling renewed confidence in Ghana’s capital market.
According to her, after seven years without an initial public offering (IPO), the market welcomed First Atlantic Bank PLC in December 2025 and two months later, Zen Petroleum joined the market to raise capital, followed by Kasapreko PLC, which also raised equity capital.
“We are attracting new companies onto the market, but it is not just that. We are also seeing new investors coming onto the market,” she said.
She said trading volumes and values had doubled compared with the same period last year, while retail investor participation had increased significantly.
“Last year, the average trades executed in a month was about 25,000 trades. This year, we are seeing 300,000 trades executed per month. The market has shifted,” she stated.
The Managing Director further stated that activity on the debt market had also surged, with volumes traded by the end of July already exceeding the total volume recorded for the whole of 2025.
Ms Amoah said the updated sustainability disclosure manual should not be viewed as a tool exclusively for the 39 companies listed on the exchange, but as a practical guide for businesses across the country seeking to attract capital.
“It is a product that can be used by every company that wants to attract capital and perform in a sustainable manner,” she said, urging small and medium-sized enterprises as well as large companies to adopt the guidance.
The Acting Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dr James Klutse Avedzi, also stressed the importance of transparency, saying credible disclosure could help organisations attract investment and build public trust.
“Transparency is not a weakness. In today’s environment, it is a competitive strength,” he said.
He urged companies to use the new manual to provide accurate and credible information on their sustainability performance.
The Deputy Head of Economic Cooperation and Development at the Swiss Embassy, Magdalene Wust, said effective sustainability reporting was a competitiveness tool that could help companies lower their cost of capital, attract investment and manage emerging risks.
The Africa Director of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Douglas Kativu, commended the GSE for its pioneering work on sustainability reporting and said credible sustainability data was increasingly important to investors and businesses.
He said the GSE’s performance and the renewed activity on the market demonstrated the importance of building a credible and transparent capital market capable of mobilising long-term finance for Ghana’s economic development.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
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