Despite the economic challenges, Ghana’s financial market maintained it number 9^th position in Africa, according to the 2023 Absa Africa Financial Markets Index.

The country, however, dropped by one point in 2023 to 58%.

Commenting, the report said “Ghana has a deterioration in FX [foreign exchange] reserves and price stability.

For Market Depth, Ghana placed 7^th with 46 points, whilst it placed 21^st with a score of 51 points in terms of Access to Foreign Exchange.

But it placed 8^th with a score of 82 points regarding Market Transparency, Tax and Regulatory Environment, 11^th with 22 points concerning Capacity of Local Investors and 27^th with 60 points with respect to Macroeconomic Environment and Transparency.

For Legal Standards and Enforceability, Ghana was 4^th with a score of 85 points.

In all, six pillars were assessed.

Ghana saw steepest decline in corporate bonds

The report pointed out that Ghana saw the steepest decline in corporate bonds outstanding to just 0.1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in June 2023, from 1.9% a year before.

Bonds issued by ESLA and Daakye Trust – special purpose vehicles set up by the government and incorporated as public companies – were restructured as part of its domestic debt exchange programme in February 2023.

This restructuring, it said, has also weighed on the value and turnover of Ghana’s listed government bonds, with one local survey respondent stating that “With the recent economic downturn and the domestic debt exchange programme, investors have lost confidence in the Ghanaian economy.” “Consequently, Ghana fell by 4 points in Pillar 1 to 46. One positive is that, after further rounds of domestic debt re-profiling in August and September, Ghana’s government is on track to meet the terms of its $3bn International Monetary Fund programme to release further disbursements from the Fund”.

South Africa remains most advanced market in Africa

The report stated that South Africa remains the largest and most advanced market in Africa.

Among the biggest improvements in the overall score were Zimbabwe and Rwanda, rising by almost 2 points each, linked to progress in building sustainable financial market frameworks. Zimbabwe has added climate risks to financial stability regulation while Rwanda is working with multilateral organisations to improve market standards for green investments.

Overall, 20 AFMI countries now incorporate environmental, social and governancelinked financial policies, which can help to mobilise new investment.

Absa Africa Financial Markets Index

Since its launch in 2017, the Absa Africa Financial Markets Index has endeavoured to demystify the continent as an investment destination

Using a variety of qualitative and quantitative data, the Absa Africa Financial Markets Index records the openness and attractiveness of financial markets in 28 African countries. Countries are scored on a scale of 10-100 based on six pillars comprised of over 40 indicators.

The data informing the scores for each pillar and their indicators stem from a mixture of quantitative and qualitative analysis. The quantitative data collected are from the latest year available.

Countries were scored based on their relative, not absolute, performance on each indicator.

COUNTRIES	RANK	2023 INDEX
South Africa	1st	89
Mauritius	2nd	77
Nigeria	3rd	67
Uganda	4th	63
Namibia	5th	63
Botswana	6th	59
Kenya	7th	59
Morocco	8th	58
Ghana	9th	58
Tanzania	10th	55