Ghana stocks fail to woo investors

Falling inflation and rising economic growth have failed to convince foreign investors to return to the Ghana stock market. The Ghanaian stock market benefitted from strong foreign investor interest in emerging markets in the early 1990s.

Many of these same investors left emerging markets in 1998 - rattled by the crises in Asia and Russia which heralded a change in investor attitude to emerging markets.

The new government's economic policies have failed to convince them to return as yet, Ghana's stock exchange's managing director Frank Tweneboa told the BBC's World Business Report.

Investors wary

Ghana's government headed by the New Patriotic Party, which took power in 2001, has been pushing ahead with reforms to try and stabilise the economy.

"The stock exchange in Ghana relies very heavily on foreign investors and when the economy went into that bad patch, a lot of those foreign investors, portfolio investors disinvested and those who did not disinvest remain inactive," Mr Tweneboa said.

At the peak of investor interest in emerging markets, over 60% of the market was held by foreign investors.

Efforts to promote the purchase of shares locally have so far not been a huge success.

"All the time, we are making efforts to educate and promote the stock exchange culture in this part of the world," Mr Tweneboa said.

"A lot of these people rather go in for real estate development, build houses, buy cars. Some, if at all, they will invest in Treasury instruments," he added.

www.gse.com.gh/