FirstBanC lists mutual fund on GSE

FirstBanC lists mutual fund on GSE
February 09, 2010
Accra, Feb. 9, GNA - FirstBanC Financial Services on Tuesday listed its mutual money fund, First Fund, on the Ghana Stock Exchange calling on the general public to purchase the shares and benefit from its numerous opportunities.

The First Fund, whose Initial Public Offer (IPO) begins on February 9 and ends on March 1, is to provide regular income to subscribers while preserving capital and maintaining liquidity at all times by investing in a diversified portfolio of high quality fixed income securities and other money market instruments.

The fund, which will be managed by seasoned fund management professionals of the bank, goes for sale at GHp10 per share with an individual minimum subscription of GH¢20 and a monthly contribution of at least GH¢5.00.

Speaking at the launch in Accra Mr Mawuli Hedo, Executive Director of FirstBanC Financial Services, said First Fund was developed to create substantial wealth for subscribers to use for their future needs.

Mr Hedo said returns on the investment were tax exempt ensuring that subscribers enjoyed high regular income to meet their short-to-medium term financial needs as well as benefit from investment advice from the managers.

He said savings culture was low among Ghanaians and said that the introduction of the Fund was to encourage savings to ensure that people, especially retirees, had enough income to cater for their needs rather than depend on their children.

Mr Seth Terkper, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning who launched the Fund, deplored the poor savings culture among Ghanaians saying it had over the years served as a hindrance to working capital and long-term investment needs.

Mr Terkper said savings rate among Ghanaians currently stood at 15 per cent and called for an improvement of the situation to a 40 per cent rate to push the country into an emerging economy status.

"As the economy grows, we must reverse this poor Ghanaian situation by harnessing domestic resources to complement the expected increased inflows from foreign investment," he said.

Mr Terkper said for a year now, the government had been reducing the fiscal deficit and restoring the current account position to restore macroeconomic stability as a means of putting the economy on a path of sustainable growth.

He said this was to prepare the economy for the oil and gas era which required careful management, and transparency through accountability, the core principles underpinning President John Evans Atta Mills' administration.

"It is against this background that government is keen to promote and support additional public and private sector initiatives to make the economy grow and create more jobs," the Minister said.

Mr Terkper therefore commended FirstBanC for introducing the fund and called on all to buy the shares to save money for investment in other fields and thereby create jobs.

He urged fund managers to endeavour to keep the cost of administration low in order to have sufficient returns to investors and make First Fund competitive locally and globally.

GNA