Abena Amoah, Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), has been appointed Chair of the International Capital Market Association’s (ICMA) Committee of Regional Representatives (CRR), the governance body that serves as the primary liaison between the ICMA Board and its 15 regional committees and chapters worldwide. The appointment was announced at the 58th ICMA Annual General Meeting and Conference in London on May 28, 2026.
The CRR oversees governance and strategic direction across ICMA’s network of more than 630 member institutions spanning 71 jurisdictions. As Chair, Ms. Amoah assumes responsibility for strengthening regional collaboration, ensuring diverse representation, and driving initiatives that address the particular needs of capital markets practitioners across all geographies. The role is not ceremonial.
ICMA is among the most consequential standard-setting bodies in the global fixed income and bond markets, the same markets African sovereigns and corporates access for international capital raises.
Ms. Amoah’s ascent to the CRR chairmanship builds on a trajectory of deepening international institutional engagement. In June 2025, she was elected to the ICMA Board itself and appointed Co-Chair of its Pan-African Committee. The CRR chairmanship represents a further step up — from regional representative to the chair of the body that bridges all regional voices with ICMA’s governing board.
“This role demands that we keep global priorities grounded in regional realities. With capital markets more interconnected than ever, yet more diverse, our regional presence is not just valuable, it is essential,” she said following the announcement.
Since Amoah was named the GSE’s first female Managing Director in November 2022 — having served as Deputy MD from August 2020, the exchange has registered a run of headline-level performances. The GSE emerged as Africa’s best-performing stock exchange in 2024, posting a 56.17 percent gain, the highest return since 2013.
That momentum has accelerated: the GSE benchmark index has risen 63.4 percent in local-currency terms so far in 2026, ranking it among the world’s top two performers behind South Korea.
The exchange has also deepened its product architecture on Amoah’s watch. In 2024, the GSE launched a regulated commercial paper (CP) market, marking a shift toward greater transparency and broader market participation in short-term corporate financing, a segment that had historically relied on informal, undisclosed private arrangements and traditional bank lending. The inaugural CP issuance of GH¢72.5 million (US$6.1 million) came from a player in Ghana’s cocoa supply chain. The exchange has also introduced a dedicated Green and Sustainable Bond Market, and the listing of Atlantic Lithium by introduction, making it the first lithium or green mineral company to list in West Africa, underscored the GSE’s push into ESG-aligned products.
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The primary market is now showing signs of revival after years of dormancy driven by the post-DDEP economic dislocation. Of 23 licensed lenders in Ghana, only 10 are currently trading on the GSE, a gap the Bank of Ghana (BoG) is actively working to close through a commercial bank listing project.
The primary market revival under Amoah’s watch has been the most visible marker of the exchange’s recovery. First Atlantic Bank listed in December 2025 at GH¢7.30 per share, raising GH¢742.2 million (US$62.9 million) in an oversubscribed offer, ending more than seven years without a single IPO on the main board.
ZEN Petroleum Holdings followed, raising GH¢640 million (US$54.2 million) at GH¢5.00 per share. Kasapreko PLC, the Alomo Bitters maker, closed its GH¢700 million (US$59.3 million) IPO on June 1, with listing on the GSE scheduled for June 17, 2026. The offer was oversubscribed, bringing the combined capital raised across the three transactions to GH¢2.1 billion (US$178 million), the most active burst of primary issuance on the exchange in nearly a decade.
Pension funds, holding over GH¢109 billion (US$9.2 billion), have been identified as the primary capital force behind the equity market surge, with compressed bond yields making listed equities more attractive to institutional investors than at any point since Ghana’s 2022 debt default.
Internationally, the World Federation of Exchanges recognised Ms. Amoah was one of the top 20 women leaders globally in 2023, and she sits on the Executive Committee of the African Securities Exchanges Association. She also serves as a Capital Markets Assessor and Expert of the High Court of Ghana.
Her ICMA chairmanship gives Africa’s most prominent exchange chief a platform that extends well beyond Ghana.
