The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) has set a March 2014 deadline for brokers, also known as licenced dealing members (LDMs), to meet the new GH¢1million minimum capital requirement.

The raising of the requirement by ten-fold from GH?100,000 will boost trading on the exchange and improve liquidity, said GSE Managing Director Kofi Yamoah.

There are about 21 brokers who do business on the market, of which the top-ten are responsible for 91 percent of trading. Stronger capital buffers will also help the brokers do business on regional exchanges when efforts to integrate West Africa’s capital markets are finalised.

Exchanges in Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilieres (BVRM) -- which features eight Francophone countries -- plan to harmonise trading rules and create a single platform for trading.

The GSE was the best-performing bourse on the continent last year, returning 79 percent on average to investors -- who traded a total of 313 million shares, up from the 218 million traded in 2012.

Total market capitalisation was GH¢61billion in 2013, with domestic market capitalisation accounting for GH¢12billion.