SEC to establish commodity exchange this year

The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) is to establish the Ghana Commodity Exchange, a regulatory body, to streamline activities in the agricultural sector and promote growth.

Just like the Ghana Stock Exchange and other regulatory bodies in the financial market, the Ghana Commodity Exchange would set the standards in the trading of all kinds of commodities and compliant mechanisms by operators.

The Director-General of the SEC, Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, said the new regulatory body would take off by the end of the year.

He announced this at the launch of the NGIS Money Market Fund (NGIS M-Fund), a subsidiary of New Generation Investment Services (NGIS) Limited, a fund management institution last Thursday in Kumasi.

The NGIS Money Market becomes the fourth subsidiary company of NGIS which also manages the famous Enyidaso Mutual Fund.

The NGIS M-Fund is a medium to long-term investment product that seeks to preserve and grow money, as well as provide liquidity to the market.

Minimum purchase

The minimum investment purchase of shares by an individual will be 200 shares and in multiples of 100 shares thereafter under the initial public offer.

Guarantee subscription

The board of directors of the scheme guarantee an initial minimum subscription of GH¢100,000 and if the minimum subscription is not raised at the close of the public offer, the directors of the scheme guarantee to purchase from the manager to make up for any shortfall between the amount raised and the guaranteed minimum subscription.

Rev. Ogbarmey Tetteh

While encouraging Ghanaians to develop the culture of savings, Rev. Ogbamey Tetteh cautioned against investing in financial institutions which offered ‘unreasonably’ high returns, saying the risk levels of such institutions were very high.

He said the establishment of such fund managers promoted wealth creation, which also helped to oil the capital market and eventually promote development.

The former Director of DataBank said that SEC placed a lot of importance on the security of the industry and would insist on ‘strong, compliance’ by the market operators.

‘Operators must be ready to play by the rules because the activities of the industry are regulated,’ he said.

The NGIS M-Fund was launched by the Adumhene, Nana Baffour Adjei Kesse.