Develop professional investment advisors — Dr Ankrah
An Investment Banker, Dr Sam Ankrah, has urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to help develop professional advisors who will help in advising clients on investment decisions.
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He said this should be at the heart of any plans by the regulator to build back trust and confidence in the industry post Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).
Speaking to the Graphic Business on the sidelines of the Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast meeting, he said “considering what we have been through, investor confidence is the most important thing that everyone of us who wants to help build the financial market must look into’’.
The breakfast meeting brought together policy makers, regulators, players in the financial sector, experts and people in academia.
It was held on the theme: ‘Domestic Debt Exchange Programme; lessons and implications for how you invest.”
Without the investors, there is no business, the money coming from this sector is also very crucial for the economy.
Dr Ankrah, who is also the President of the AfricanInvestment Group, held the view that any attempt by the regulator to help build back confidence is welcomed, however, “where I think we should look more into is developing the advisors, the people that sit in front of the clients and advise,” he stated.
Building confidence
He said once clients were assured of getting value from these advisors, it would help in building their confidence back.
Dr Ankrah noted that the current advisors made clients feel pressurised and pushed to sign up onto products rather than being advised.
“It is more like people selling a product rather than giving an advice and this is a problem.
We need to have a regulated questionnaire that aims at finding the individuals appetite for investment.
Are the recommendations made to suite a particular need or its just because we have this product, automatically you have to take it,” he pointed out.
Going beyond the investment fund
Dr Ankrah said while the idea of establishing an Investment Fund was good, SEC must go beyond that by making sure that the advisors that sat in front of clients were given detailed advice based on the clients circumstances and not a product they wanted to sell.
He said it was also important that clients were advised not to put all their funds into one portfolio.
“They need to diversify.
Even in the current market as it sits now, although we all understand we are still building, there are still other products to invest in.
“The Ghana Stock Exchange presents an opportunity to invest in other investment portfolios that we can advise clients to put their money in,” he stated.