Ashesi University Emerges Winner Of CFA Institute Research Challenge

Ashesi University has been crowned winner of the second season of the local finals of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute Research Challenge. This is the second consecutive time it has won the competition.

The local finals, which was held in Accra, saw Grade A Capital of Ashesi emerge the ultimate winners. They will represent the country at the Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) regional final this year. Market Mavericks of Ashesi University finished second, followed by Team Elite Analysts from University of Professional Studies-Accra (UPSA) UPSA, third, with Team Apex from UPSA taking the fourth place.

The second edition saw teams conduct in-depth analysis of a publicly listed company and provide investment recommendations based on their findings. Participating students were tested on their analytical, valuation, report writing, research and presentation skills.

The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual global competition that provides final year undergraduate students and Master of Business Administration level students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis and professional ethics.

Speaking to the B&FT after the event, CFA’s President Nana Wiafe Boamah said his outfit is committed to building a generation of professional analysts.

“We are hoping that this competition will awaken the general interest around equities and equities research. We do not have enough analysts out there putting up quality research reports, and I can say without any equivocation that the research they have put out there, 99 percent of industry analysts cannot put up such research. Hopefully, this should set the stage for high quality research work just so we can get people excited about the general equity market,” he said.

Commenting on the performance of the participants, he said it represents a massive improvement on the previous season. “I will say about 70 percent improvement; this year the quality of work and the quality of their research has been top-notch, so we hope for this to improve and hopefully one day, Ghana will bring home the title.”

“I think, for me, it’s a lot of intellectual curiosity to start with, and we are intentional about making sure our students are life-long learners because we cannot teach them everything. So it’s the high level of intellectual curiosity. And then, the second thing will be the level of experiential learning. These are things we do in class. We actually do it in excel for us to grade,” said Esther Laryea, a lecturer and faculty advisor for the winning team.