A team of Ashesi Business Administration students emerged as winners in the Chartered Financial Analyst Institutes’ (CFA) Research Challenge Finals held in Ghana this year. The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual global competition that provides final year undergraduates and MBA-level students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis and professional ethics. Participating students are tested on their analytical, valuation, report writing, research analyses, and presentation skills.
Other universities represented in the competition were the University of Professional Studies in Accra, and the University of Ghana Business School. The winning Ashesi team, made up of Joyce Selby, Bridgette Adatsi, George Duku, and Enyonam Koko, will represent the local CFA Society in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) Regional Final later this year.
The Ashesi team, supervised by their faculty advisor, Anthony Essel- Anderson (third from left in photo), evaluated MTN Ghana for six months leading up to the competition finals. Their evaluation focused on MTN’s past performance, developments in the telecom industry, and the industry’s outlook. Their findings indicated an undervaluation of MTN Ghana’s stock and, indicating a potential increase in value for shareholders, recommended a buy for the MTN stock.
“It was a wonderful opportunity and learning experience for us,” the team shared. “Combining our academic work at Ashesi and this research competition was challenging. However, being in a team and having guidance from our faculty advisor made it easier considering these were things we had also been taught in various courses at Ashesi.”