The Daily IIJ

With barely 30 days of automating the trading platform , the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) securities depository has created 6,000 electronic accounts.

Significantly, it also means that any trading on the market in the last 30 days was effected  only in these 6,000 accounts out of the over 250,000 shareholders on the bourse.

Mr. Ekow Afedzi, General Manager of  the GSE therefore urged shareholders to get their paper certificates converted to electronic accounts as quickly as possible to facilitate trade volumes.

“The system is working efficiently as expected. Volumes  are  picking up except that they are slow,” he said  at a ‘facts behind the figures’ programme  at the GSE last week.

Because of the electronic systems, shares and bonds  can only trade  after they are deposited in the securities depository.  The depository allows investors to hold more than one account, just like in the case of a bank account.

With the automated market, stock  brokers now have the option to transact business from the comfort of their offices or makes use of online facilities furnished at the GSE building.

Mr. Afedzi said the few days of trading on the new system testifies about the enormous benefits for the market in the years to come.

“The GSE is poised more than ever to compete with other markets in the world for global volumes and market capitalization. 

 “Past challenges with the trading settlement time of T+3 are all gone. Investors can check their share or bond accounts at anytime T while brokers can conveniently cross-check  trading results and so on,”  he said.

As part of laid down procedures, electronic account holders receive statements showing movements in their holdings every quarter from securities depository and annually from their brokerage firms.

This is supposed to help them to track their investments and know how they are performing on the market. 

An alert system on mobile phones and emails to give investors real time updates of sales and purchases of shares on their account is also in the pipeline.

Many companies have passed resolutions at their annual general meetings, making it legal for boards of companies to ask shareholders to convert paper share certificates into electronic accounts with the depository.