The Grade A Capital team, made up of Erica Anang, Nana Serwaa Opoku-Acheampong, Felicia Baeta, Nana Asare and Adebayo Adedeji, will now advance to the regional competition where it will compete against universities from the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa.

The team went home with a cash prize of GH¢10,000, branded CFA Institute Research souvenirs as well as an internship slot for all the members.

The Market Mavericks, also from Ashesi University, placed second and went away with a cash prize of GH¢5,000, in addition to branded CFA Institute Research souvenirs and an internship slot for all the team members.

Team Elite Analysts and Apex Team, both from the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) placed third and fourth respectively.

The competition

During the competition, which took place in Accra last Saturday (March 4), the teams were tested on their analytical, valuation, report writing  and presentation skills, where they  were judged by experts on their ability to value a stock, write a research report, and present their recommendations.

Their presentations were a culmination of months of research; interviews with the management of the companies, competitors and clients.

CFA Research Challenge

The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual global competition that connects university students with investment professionals from within the CFA Society network.

The competition provides students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis and ethics and tests participants' analytical, valuation, reporting writing, and presentation skills.

The competition is categorised into three phases – local, regional and global competition, with the winner at each stage progressing to the next level.

Impact of the competition

According to the President of the CFA Research Institute, Nana Wiafe Boamah, the rationale for the competition was to help students hone their company valuation skills.

He said the whole idea of the challenge was to give the participants a peek into what occurred in the world of investment management.

Nana Boamah indicated that over the years,  people had lost faith in the equity market with a few people interested in buying stocks.

He was, therefore, hopeful that with time, the competition would awaken the general interest around equities and equity research.

“I have observed that we do not have much analysts who put up quality research reports. So this competition will set the stage for high-quality research to get people enthused about the general equity market,” Mr Boamah said.

He further commended the various schools who have expressed interest in the competition and also urged others, particularly the public universities, to come on board.

“There has been a massive improvement in this year’s competition as compared to previous years.

The quality for this year has been top-notch and we hope that this continues,” Mr Boamah said.