The National De­velopment Plan­ning Commission and the Ghana Stock Exchange will work together to strengthen the Exchange’s role in national development, the Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Nii Moi Thompson, has said.

Dr Thompson, who doubles as the Senior Advisor to President Mahama on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), made the observation during a courtesy call on the Managing Director of the Exchange, Ms Abena Amoah, in Accra.

He said besides help­ing private investors to mobilise billions of cedis for businesses and infra­structure development, deepening and expanding the activities of the Ex­change would also give Ghanaians a greater stake in the economy through ownership in various companies.

“Currently, we remain tenants on our own land, as the largest and most lucrative parts of the economy are dominated by non-Ghanaians,” he observed, stating that foreign investors should be given the incentives to partner Ghanaians, while policy is strengthened for the purposeful transfer of world-class technol­ogy and management practices to strengthen the Ghanaian private sector.

He disclosed that the Commission had begun a research programme on Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) to gain greater insights into their potential to stim­ulate national develop­ment, using such insights to advise the government on its policy choices about the sectors.

On her part, Ms Amoah, who was in the company of the Exchange’s head of strategy, Mrs Diane Okine, noted that capital markets were crucial to mobil­ising private finance for economic development, including infrastructure provision.

She said lack of well-structured invest­ment opportunities in Ghana has forced many Ghanaians to invest bil­lions of dollars annually in various investment schemes abroad.

Ms Amoah pledged to deepen collabora­tion with the NDPC by supporting its policy research agenda with the relevant data and involv­ing the Commission in as many of its programmes as possible.