New Minimum Capital Requirement for Securities Operators in the Pipeline

By Claude Nyarko Adams

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will by the end of this year announce a new minimum capital requirement for licensed operators in the industry.

According to Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, Director General of SEC, operators were to meet the requirement within a 12- month period after the announcement.

Addressing the media in a soiree in Accra on Wednesday, he said the SEC had engaged the operators for their inputs in the new requirement.

The event was to brief the media on the 3rd Capital Market Conference organised by the SEC as part of the Commission's 20th anniversary celebration.

Scheduled for November 21 and 22, it is on the theme "Ghana Beyond Aid: The Role of the Capital Market."

The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison, Former Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper, Minister of Works and Housing, Samuel Atta Akyea, Dr Gideon Onuma, University of Greenwich, London, Dr Ayowa Afrifa, Chief Executive Officer of Soroma Capital, among others are billed to speak at the conference.

Mr Ogbarmey Tetteh said the event seeks to undertake critical assessments and review of performance of the SEC as the regulator of Ghana's capital market and create awareness about the importance of the capital market in wealth creation, national economic growth and development.

It would also generate and sustain public and investors' interest and participation in the securities industry and enhance the corporate visibility and image of the Commission, he stated.

Commenting on reports that Menzgold Ghana has launched an online gold store, a buying and selling market platform known as Menzgold Global Market within the week, the Head of Legal and Enforcement at SEC, Nii Oman Badoo of SEC, said the Commission would keep a close eye on the company's online ventures.

While it remains unclear how the company would be operating online, he said it would intervene if it determines Menzgold was working within its purview.

"We have also picked signals in public on the issue about an online business. We are monitoring. As long as it offends our legal or regulatory regime, we will come into play. As long as that platform falls within the regulatory regime of the SEC, the SEC will act," he stated.

Mr Badoo said the SEC has limited information at the moment saying that "the investigative team of SEC would investigate if there is a platform like that and we will look at the features of the platform. Once it falls within an activity that must be regulated within Act 129, the SEC will advise itself. If it doesn't fall within our regime, we will not say anything."

Read Full Story