UMB Investment Holdings Limited and UMB Stockbrokers Limited have partnered with the Young Investor Network to launch the UMB Investment Holdings Young Investor Challenge. 

This is an equity trading competition where participants are expected to trade on the Ghana Stock Exchange and would be evaluated at the end of a 3 month period.

They would be trading with virtual cash of 50,000 cedis and the teams would be assessed based on the quality of stocks they have purchased.

Head of Policy Research and IT with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Emmanuel Ashong-Katai, urged students to learn the regulations regarding trading on the stock exchange so as to shore up the habit of investment.

According to him, “optimal knowledge of investment avenues in the country reduces the rate of people falling victim to Ponzi schemes in the country.”

The event was to create awareness of equity trading among young investors and get the teams to start their trading. 

This is part of the financial literacy drive by the two companies to deepen financial inclusion in the country and also to introduce the participants (students) to the stock mark at an early stage and get them to be comfortable with equity investments.

The participants comprise teams from 7 tertiary institutions namely University of Ghana, Central University, Accra Technical University and the Methodist University.

A key part of the competition is to take teams through weeks of rigorous training to build their capacities. A trading software has been purposely customized for this competition and would be made available to the students to help them trade on the stock market.

Winners of the competition would be given cash prizes and also an opportunity to open an equity investment account with UMB Stockbrokers called the Wealth Builder.