The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says it is promoting the establishment of a real-estate development fund that will link the capital market with the real-estate market.

The idea, according to the Director-General of the Commission, Adu Anane Antwi, is to reduce the housing-gap in the country.

Ghana currently has a housing deficit estimated at over 1.5 million units, with an increase in demand of over 70,000 housing units annually.

He said the real-estate fund will be a vehicle to mobilise funds and will be invested in real-estate projects. The fund will be listed on the stock exchange and will be a closed-end fund to help the managers do the construction of real-estate projects.

The Director-General disclosed this at the launch of the 20th anniversary celebration of Gold Coast Securities Limited in Accra.

In addition, he said the Commission will also establish the Ghana Alternative Exchange (GAX) that will take care of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that do not have the capacity to list on the main bourse because of the high requirements, saying that this market is there to encourage them to source for funding from the capital market through the Ghana Stock Exchange.

“They just have to get about GH¢250,000 after the floatation as their stated capital, and they can still list with even less than 50 shareholders. There is also an incentive for them to list on the market, whereby they are assisted to pay for their floatation cost from a revolving credit facility for them to pay later on,” he said.

“Even if they do not have a financial accounting statement, they can still list because the GAX is also intended to cater for start-up companies,” Mr. Anane Antwi added.

Gold Coast Securities Limited was established on 16th August 1993 and has pioneered lots of financial management schemes in the country.

It was officially admitted to the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) as its fourth member on 21st October, 1993 and was then the only Ghanaian company.

Gold Coast Securities Limited now manages a total fund of GH¢366million and has about 14 branches across the country.