Players in the capital market have urged the government to expedite processes to get more multinationals to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).
They contend that a further delay will rip the country off the numerous benefits accruing from the move.
As part of interventions to grow the capital market, the government has announced the scrapping of capital gains tax and exemption of the market from stamp duty for 2 years.
In addition, government intends to formulate laws that will make multinationals list a minimum of their shares within five years of operation.
Commenting on the development, the immediate past Director General of the Securities and Exhange Commission (SEC), Dr. Adu Anane Antwi lauded the plan highlighting its potential to reduce the perennial depreciation of the cedi.
“If we bring in this policy, it will not only help develop the capital market but also stabilize the value of the cedi…Though the companies make their monies in cedis, they need to convert them into dollars when they are repatriating to their home countries,” he remarked.
The former SEC Boss added, “If even they list twenty-five percent, then I believe the pressure will be lessened and that will also be a huge impact if you consider an aggregate all these companies involved in these activities and consider data available to the Bank of Ghana, you would find that.”
The industry watchers have been pushing for legislations to make it compulsory for foreign companies to attract local ownership and reduce the huge outflow of dividends and profits.
While admitting that the policies should largely be rolled out after the necessary approval have been granted by Parliament, Dr. Adu Antwi was however optimistic that the processes are quickened to enable the capital market tap into the proposed benefits.
“For everybody who is anticipating to enjoy some benefits will always want to do so immediately but that is not possible…The taxes for instance have to be sent to Parliament before they can be abolished technically,”
“We are only hoping that such processes will not take such a long time for everybody to realize the benefits that we are hoping to get in the market,” he further suggested.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
