In Ghana, most people, including men, shy away from forex trading as the fear of the unknown limits their possible growth, but one person leading the charge on the Ghanaian forex trading front is Gifty Annor-Sika Asantewaa.
Born to an educationist mother, her early life was dominated by changing schools on a regular as she moved around with her mother on her various transfers across the country. She takes lessons of life from staying in the Greater Accra, Brong Ahafo and Eastern Regions. Gifty Annor-Sika Asantewaa ended up in the Yaa Asantewaa Senior High School for her secondary education and loved every moment spent in school. It was here she developed an interest in reading and writing although she was a student of the sciences.
Her mother, who regarded the science programme as tedious, was not enthused when she learnt her daughter was into active sports in school. She believed science students should be focused on their books and nothing more.
Gifty Annor-Sika Asantewaa considers her mother as her greatest inspiration. Her versatile mother, who has always been by her side, chalked immense success which motivated Gifty to aspire to be like her. After completing High School, Gifty decided to part ways with the pure sciences and ventured into the social sciences and has never looked back.
Young Gifty ventured into the world of work during her first year at the university and that was where she discovered the love for entrepreneurship. Working as the Personal Assistant to the President of her company, she learnt essential life values and work ethics. She argues the tutelage she received under her boss is a necessity for any youth, calling on young people to pursue internships regardless of their age and level of education.
In her view, women in Africa, and Ghana in particular, are entitled and feel the need to have some dependency on men – a habit which is now seen at workplaces.
Advising women on the YLeaderboard Series hosted by Rev. Erskine of the ‘Myd Morning Radio Show’ fame, she said: “I will first of all say we must be disciplined and open up our minds. In our part of the world, and Ghana to be precise, our women are very entitled and have been engineered to have some dependency on the men.” Gifty, however, says this must not apply to one’s career. The forex trader believes the idea of dependents does not exist ‘when it comes to career and intelligence’”.
With the proliferation of social media and the Internet, governments barely have the opportunity to control anything virtual, but can put in place measures to regulate them. She expressed fear that if the forex sector is not regulated, many Ghanaians will fall victim to fraudulent individuals.
“Regulation has become an issue, and if we have the attention of policy-makers now, we will tell them to speed up the process for forex trade. If this is not done, it is going to be to their own detriment. At this point everyone is on social media and gov’t cannot control the number of people who go online. If citizens go there because there are no regulations they fall into the hands of fraudulent people. If these happen, unsuspecting victims suffer and lose money,” she said.
She called on authorities to invest more in the forex trading, focusing on it as a way of improving the cedi’s value.
