By Latifah Funke Ibrahim
Mr. Ekwow Afedzie, Deputy Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) has stated that the listing of Tullow Oil Ghana on the GSE would make the Ghanaian money market more visible and attractive to both the domestic and international business world.
He said the GSE, which currently valued at about GHC19 billion stood to rise to a whopping GHC47 billion after taking on the oil giant, which is valued within the region of GHC28 - GHC30 billion.
He added that Tullow Oil’s decision to list on the GSE has provided the market with an incredible amount of credibility among other markets in the region, and was very hopeful that it would translate in an increase in the number of listing on the market soon.
“Ghana Stock Exchange will be among the top three money markets within the sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa”, he said.
Mr. Afedzie was speaking as a panelist on the Ghana Television (GTV’s) current affairs talk show, ‘Talking Point’ on Sunday, July 3rd 2011, on the topic, ‘The Oil Industry and its listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange.’
He further said ordinary Ghanaians who invested in shares offered on the market stood to benefit a great deal through dividend income, capital gains through sale of shares, and the usage of the shares as collateral to access credit facilities because Tullow Oil was well positioned and possessed great potential to do well.
He later advised investors to make an effort to follow and be abreast with the performance of companies they invest in both on and off the market through the media, so they could make informed decisions about whether to keep or sell their shares and hence increase the liquidity of the market.
The Communications Manager of Tullow Oil Ghana, Mr. Gayheart Mensah also on the show said that Tullow Oil decided to list and float its Shares on the GSE to show its confidence in the Ghanaian investor, to foster public participation in its operations and successes, and to signify its commitment to staying in the country for a long time.
He however noted that most Ghanaians had inflated expectations of the newly discovered oil and gas industry of the country. Citing the case of Nigeria and other oil and gas producing countries, he cautioned that the production of oil did not mean that our problems as a nation would be solved overnight.
He therefore advised the public to temper their expectations with the realities on the ground such as the 70,000 barrels worth of crude oil produced a day at the Jubilee Fields would peak to 120,000 barrels a day later in the year.
Mr. Mensah then assured Ghanaians that Tullow’s presence in the country would, beyond the 20-year lifespan of the Jubilee Field, within which additional developments would double production; processes are also in place to develop projects discoveries like the Tweneboah and Enyera Fields in the offing.
He said transparency and the involvement of all stakeholders in the operations within the industry is key to avoiding conflicts and preventing a case similar to that of the Niger Delta in Nigeria, where developments are closer to human settlements.
On Tullow Oil Shares being perceived as too expensive for the ordinary Ghanaian, Mr. Kwabena Osei-Boateng, Executive Director of IC Securities, who described the Tullow listing as “momentous and emmense,” explained that Tullow Oil, already listed on the London and Ireland stock markets was bound by some rules that prevented it from selling at prices that are too different from that on those markets.
Mr. Afedzie advised the public to seek information from brokerage firms in the country and publications to better understand how the stock exchange was faring, lamenting that many people have invested in companies and yet never bothered to know how those shares were performing. thebusinessanalystgh@gmail.com
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