- GSE’s Abena Amoah Warns Misinformation and Digital Scams Risk Eroding Investor Confidence
The rapid digitalisation of Ghana’s capital market could broaden investment participation but also leave households increasingly exposed to misinformation and sophisticated scams, according to Abena Amoah, Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange.
Ms Amoah said efforts to improve access to investment platforms must be accompanied by stronger financial education, credible information and greater vigilance from investors, market institutions and the media.
Speaking at the Ring the Bell for Financial Literacy Campaign 2026 at the GSE in Accra on October 6, she warned that inaccurate financial information could damage investor confidence even when the claims were subsequently corrected.
“The media has a responsibility to make sure that the news they report comes from credible and official sources, not unnamed parties who have heard about the transaction, because that is how we lose investor confidence,” she said.
Her intervention comes as financial services increasingly migrate to digital channels, reducing the cost of investing while making it easier for rumours, misleading content and fraudulent schemes to reach potential investors.
The event was held under the theme “Investor Resilience, Digital Deception and Scam Alert”.
The theme reflects a new challenge for Ghana’s financial market. It is no longer sufficient to teach people why they should save and invest. Investors must also learn how to verify information, identify regulated platforms and distinguish legitimate opportunities from convincing digital imitations.
Ms Amoah said the GSE’s financial-literacy initiatives had reached 418,000 students and more than 409 schools since 2022.
The programme seeks to improve investment knowledge among younger Ghanaians, many of whom are comfortable using digital applications but may have limited experience evaluating financial products and investment risks.
Young people represent an important potential source of long-term capital. Encouraging them to invest early could help build household wealth while increasing the pool of domestic savings available to finance Ghanaian businesses and government development programmes.
Their heavy reliance on social media and digital platforms, however, also makes them vulnerable to deceptive advertising, manipulated testimonials and investment schemes designed to imitate regulated financial institutions.
Financial literacy is therefore becoming inseparable from digital literacy.
An investor may understand the relationship between risk and return but still lose money by following an impersonated social-media account, joining a fraudulent WhatsApp group or using an application that falsely claims to be connected to a licensed institution.
The GSE is working with other market institutions to provide investors with direct access to verified information and investment tools.
“We are also working with partners to put reliable tools in investors’ hands,” Ms Amoah said, citing the Central Securities Depository’s recently launched Investor Connect application.
“The point of these tools is simple: when investors can see the market for themselves, they are less dependent on hearsay,” she added.
Providing investors with direct access to their securities, transactions and official market information could reduce their dependence on informal sources.
The development also shifts the role of the investor from being a passive recipient of information to an active participant capable of checking claims against primary market data.
Stockbrokers are similarly developing digital platforms to make investment products more accessible. Ms Amoah highlighted IC Securities’ platform as part of the broader shift towards providing investors with more direct access to the market.
These platforms could lower transaction costs and help Ghana attract retail investors who may previously have viewed the stock market as complicated or inaccessible.
But convenience alone will not produce sustainable participation. Investors must trust the platforms, understand the products and know where to seek redress when something goes wrong.
Ms Amoah’s remarks place part of the responsibility for investor protection on Ghana’s media.
Capital-market reporting can influence how investors assess companies, transactions and financial institutions. An inaccurate report may trigger uncertainty, discourage participation or damage the reputation of an institution before the facts are established.
Ms Amoah referred to an instance in which claims about a capital-market transaction were published and subsequently proved incorrect.
“The story they put out there was absolutely false,” she said. “The truth then came out.”
The difficulty is that the eventual correction may not reach everyone who encountered the original claim. False information can be shared widely within minutes, while official clarifications may receive less attention.
This creates an asymmetry in which misinformation travels rapidly but corrections struggle to repair the resulting damage.
In capital markets, that gap has economic consequences. Investors may postpone decisions, sell assets or avoid formal financial products because of claims that later turn out to be inaccurate.
Responsible financial journalism therefore requires more than speed. It requires verification, an understanding of market structures and a willingness to seek information from identifiable and authoritative sources.
The argument does not mean the media should avoid scrutiny of market institutions. Independent reporting remains important for transparency and accountability. The requirement is that scrutiny be grounded in evidence, particularly when reporting allegations capable of affecting investor decisions.
Ghana faces a familiar emerging-market dilemma: how to widen retail participation without allowing the democratisation of investment to become an avenue for fraud.
Digital platforms can make investment products easier to access. But the same technology gives fraudulent operators the ability to approach large numbers of people at relatively little cost.
For regulators, exchanges and financial institutions, investor education must therefore evolve beyond explaining shares, bonds and investment returns.
It must build what the GSE describes as investor resilience: the capacity to question extraordinary claims, verify market information, understand the characteristics of regulated products and resist pressure to make immediate financial decisions.
Ms Amoah urged investors to verify information before acting and asked participants to extend the lessons of the campaign beyond the event.
“I ask every person here to do one thing for me: share one lesson from today with someone who could be a target,” she said. “That could be your parents, a colleague or a friend.”
“Scams spread quickly, and protection needs to spread even faster.”
For the GSE, the message is central to the development of Ghana’s domestic capital market.
Technology can broaden access, improve information and attract a new generation of investors. Sustainable participation, however, will depend on whether people trust the institutions, reporting and digital infrastructure through which their money moves.
“Let us ring the bell of financial literacy,” Ms Amoah said. “Let us ring the bell for a stronger domestic capital market.”
