The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), in collaboration with Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), has set up a US$600,000 fund to support the listing of Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises (SMEs) on the exchange.
The fund, which is available till April 2017, will provide resources to qualifying companies to have listing expenses paid ahead of actual public floatation.
The Managing Director (MD) of the GSE, Mr Kofi Yamoah, revealed this to the media in Accra, at the launch of the Initial Public Offer (IPO) of the Intravenous Infusions Limited (IIL).
“The fund is ready between October 2015 and April 2017 and it will be available for companies to access, the idea is to assist any company that comes to the Ghana Alternative Market to tap into it in order to seek advisory services,” he said.
He explained that the GSE with the VCTF planned to initially invest US$750,000 but the AfDB joined and the process delayed due to documentation and other procedures.
Mr Yamoah said the market existed to support SMEs to expand, grow and also to contribute to the country’s economy.
He said the high level of interest shown by companies to raise fresh funds through listing of bonds was an attestation that the Ghanaian capital market had picked up.
He urged the private sector to take advantage of the current interest from investors to tap in to the capital markets to finance their projects.
Alternative market
The concept of the alternative market is to address complaints by SMEs about the stringent criteria that make it impossible to use the market to raise equity for their businesses.
This alternative market will have relaxed pre and post listing requirements to remove the barrier of stringent standards that currently limit the ability of SMEs to raise equity on the market.
The Ghana Alternative Market (GAX) has emerged as one of the major provider of investment capital inflow to small and medium enterprises in the country.
Since alternative market was opened in November last year, three companies have successfully been listed and about GHc7.5 million has been raised from the market through Initial Public Offering (IPO) and right issues.
The companies listed on the GAX are Samba Foods Limited, Meridian-Marshalls Holdings Company, afb Ghana plc and currently an indigenous manufacturer of pharmaceutical products, the Intravenous Infusions Limited, has launched its IPO to list on the market.
Source: Graphic