- Strong IPO Demand Leaves Ghana Searching for More Market-Ready Companies — PwC
Ghana’s capital market is confronting an unusual constraint: investor appetite appears increasingly strong, but the pipeline of companies ready to raise money through public markets remains comparatively thin, according to PwC Ghana.
The professional services firm says the traditional problem of businesses struggling to find capital is beginning to shift towards a different challenge — whether enough well-governed and institutionally prepared companies exist to absorb the growing pool of patient capital held by pension funds, asset managers and other long-term investors.
The issue was highlighted during a PwC Ghana webinar on preparing businesses for growth through the capital market, where participants argued that recent initial public offerings and strong stock-market performance point to meaningful demand for credible investment opportunities.
“The conversation in Ghana has traditionally been framed around businesses searching for capital,” Kingsford Arthur, Financial Services Leader at PwC Ghana, said. “Increasingly, however, we should also be asking whether enough IPO-ready businesses exist to absorb the growing pool of patient capital available in the market.”
Recent listings provide evidence of that demand.
ZEN Petroleum raised GH¢640 million through its listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange in April, while Kasapreko’s IPO drew approximately GH¢1.73 billion in subscriptions against a target of GH¢700 million, representing an oversubscription of 146%. The GSE separately confirmed that ZEN Petroleum raised GH¢640 million in equity capital when it listed on April 22.
Those transactions have become important reference points for companies considering public-market funding because they suggest investors are willing to commit sizeable sums where they see credible businesses, recognisable brands, clear governance structures and an investable growth story.
The broader market backdrop has also strengthened that argument.
The GSE Composite Index returned 79.4% in 2025, its strongest annual performance since 2004, while market capitalisation rose 54.5% to about GH¢172 billion from GH¢111.35 billion a year earlier. Total equity value traded increased 73.75% to GH¢3.74 billion.
PwC said the market delivered a 137.4% return in US-dollar terms in 2025, reflecting the additional impact of currency movements on foreign-investor returns.
But the demand side of the market is expanding faster than the supply of issuers.
Ghana’s pension industry held approximately GH¢111.1 billion in assets in 2025, according to figures cited by PwC, creating a substantial pool of capital that increasingly requires long-duration investment opportunities beyond traditional government securities.
That has revived a broader debate over how much institutional money should be channelled into productive private-sector assets rather than remaining concentrated in sovereign paper. Ghana’s private-capital industry has similarly urged pension funds to look beyond government securities and allocate more capital to businesses capable of generating growth and employment.
The constraint, however, is not simply persuading companies to sell shares.
Becoming IPO-ready requires businesses to build governance systems, audited financial reporting, management depth, succession structures, internal controls and disclosure processes capable of meeting the expectations of regulators and institutional investors.
That can be particularly difficult for founder-led and family-owned Ghanaian companies, many of which may be profitable and commercially successful but remain heavily dependent on individual owners for decision-making, financing relationships and strategic direction.
Daniel Desmond Koomson, Senior Manager in Deals at PwC Ghana, said companies often misunderstand an IPO as merely a fundraising event rather than the culmination of a much longer institutionalisation process.
“The readiness journey compels businesses to strengthen governance, improve reporting, build management depth, formalise succession plans and establish the structures required to create value over generations,” he said.
That distinction matters because public investors are not simply purchasing exposure to current earnings. They are buying into the expectation that a company can continue operating, expanding and reporting transparently after founders reduce their direct control or eventually leave the business.
PwC also challenged the perception that listing necessarily means surrendering ownership.
Most IPOs involve the sale of a minority stake, allowing existing shareholders to retain substantial control while gaining access to equity capital that can finance expansion, technology, acquisitions, new factories or regional growth.
For Ghanaian businesses seeking to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area, access to patient capital could become increasingly important because cross-border expansion often requires financing horizons longer than conventional bank loans can comfortably provide.
Public equity also avoids the fixed repayment obligations associated with debt, potentially giving companies more room to invest during expansion phases.
Yet the capital market can only play that role if there is a sufficiently broad pipeline of issuers.
The GSE’s official listings show that ZEN Petroleum joined the Main Market in April and Kasapreko followed in June, adding two significant domestic corporate names to an exchange where new equity listings have historically been relatively infrequent.
A deeper issuer base would offer benefits beyond capital raising.
More listed companies could broaden investment choices for pension funds and asset managers, improve liquidity, strengthen price discovery and reduce the extent to which institutional portfolios are concentrated in a small number of equities and government securities.
It could also create a stronger incentive for private companies to formalise governance and reporting standards before seeking public capital.
But listing is not appropriate for every business, and strong demand in recent offers does not guarantee that every IPO will succeed. Valuation, profitability, growth prospects, governance and investor confidence will still determine whether capital is available and at what price.
The emerging problem is therefore less a shortage of money than a shortage of businesses sufficiently prepared to compete for it.
Ghana has built a growing pool of long-term institutional savings and has shown through ZEN Petroleum and Kasapreko that investors will commit substantial capital to credible offers.
The next stage of capital-market development will depend on whether more Ghanaian companies can make the transition from successful private businesses into transparent, professionally governed and investable public institutions.
For PwC, that preparation needs to begin long before a company reaches the point of needing cash. The companies most likely to access Ghana’s expanding pool of patient capital will be those that start building the governance, reporting and management structures today that public investors will demand tomorrow.
