… advocates listing on Stock Exchange
By Eugene Davis
The Ghana Chamber of Mines (GCM) is poised to actively support its member companies facing capital needs or new businesses experiencing liquidity constraints by advocating for fund-raising through the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).
According to the President of the Chamber Mr. Joshua Mortoti, this aligns with the chamber’s stance that the decision to list on the GSE should not solely be driven by regulatory requirements. Rather, it emphasizes that investors are likely to achieve higher returns by investing in a new firm as opposed to an already established one.
Further, he disclosed that the chamber will be encouraging its member companies with capital needs or new businesses with liquidity constraints to consider raising funds from the GSE. This is consistent with the Chamber’s position that a firm’s decision to list on the GSE should not be driven by regulatory requirements and that investors are likely to yield higher returns from investing in a new firm than an already established firm.
While the focus of the GSE and Minerals Commission has so far been on existing mining firms, the Chamber will leverage its planned engagements to include exploration firms and mining support service firms in the pool of potential firms that could list on the bourse.
Speaking to members at a ‘Breakfast Meeting with the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources’ in Accra, he said “to diversify the local content initiatives, the Chamber intends to collaborate with the GSE and other seasoned investment analysts to sensitize the public on investing in the mining sector in 2024. The maiden engagement will be in the form of a public forum.”
He disclosed that the mining sector’s contribution to gross merchandise exports rose from 35.7 percent as of the end of August 2022 to 43.4 percent as of the same period in 2023. The improved outturn of the mining sector’s export earnings, which was more than the sum of the proceeds from the export of crude oil and cocoa in the same period, meant that the sector retained its pride of place as the foremost source of forex earnings.
The Chamber also plans to collaborate with the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) to convene dialogues on the benefits of mining. In line with its modus operandi, the Chamber will seek the collaboration of the Sector Ministry and Minerals Commission in this endeavour.
The country’s position as the largest gold producer and one of the oldest mining jurisdictions on the continent provides outstanding opportunities for the country to build a robust ecosystem for mining support services with an export orientation.
To realize this objective, the Chamber engaged the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) to conduct a study on how to position Ghana as the hub for mine support services in West Africa.
ACEP has submitted a draft to the Chamber and the latter will seek your support in implementing the recommendations of the study when it is finalized. The Chamber has already set up an eminent panel that will review the findings of the study.
