Glossary

Every specialist term used anywhere in the Ardent CrowdFund documentation is defined here in plain English, with cross-links to the full pages that use them. If you come across a term we haven't covered, flag it via the in-app feedback widget and we'll add it.

A

AGM (Annual General Meeting): The yearly shareholder meeting of an issuing company, at which directors are re-elected, accounts are tabled, and material resolutions are voted on. As an equity investor on Ardent, you can attend (in person or virtually) and vote your shares. See also: AGMs and voting.

Allotment: The formal allocation of shares (equity) or notes (debt) to an investor after a campaign closes successfully. Your allotment confirms the exact number of units you hold and is reflected on your investor certificate.

AML (Anti-Money Laundering): The body of rules and operational controls that prevent the financial system from being used to launder the proceeds of crime. Ardent applies AML checks at onboarding and on every subscription. See also: AML / KYC.

B

BRN (Business Registration Number): The unique identifier assigned to every Ghanaian company by the Registrar-General's Department at incorporation. Ardent captures and verifies the BRN for every issuer during application.

C

Cap Table (Capitalisation Table): The authoritative list of a company's shareholders, the number and class of shares each holds, and how much of the company each owns on a fully diluted basis. Every equity raise on Ardent updates the issuer's cap table. See also: Cap table management.

CDD (Customer Due Diligence): The set of checks a regulated firm must run on a customer before onboarding them, confirming identity, understanding the source of funds, and screening against sanctions lists. CDD is the operational layer of AML. See also: AML / KYC.

Convertible Note: A debt instrument that converts into equity on a trigger event (usually the next priced funding round, an IPO, or a defined maturity). Common for early-stage issuers that aren't ready to price equity. See also: Crowdfunding types.

Cooling-off Period: Under SEC Guideline 27(7), you may withdraw your offer before the end of the offer period. On Ardent, the system usually tracks that through the campaign's close date; if no close is set, a 48-hour fallback from commitment is used. Funds remain in escrow until you cancel or the window passes. See also: Cooling-off period.

Coupon: The periodic interest payment a debt issuer makes to noteholders. The coupon rate is fixed in the offer document and the schedule (monthly / quarterly / annually) is set when the campaign launches.

Custodian (Custodian Bank): An SEC- and BoG-regulated bank that holds investor funds in segregated trust accounts on Ardent's behalf. Ardent itself never holds investor money. See also: Escrow explained.

D

Debenture: A medium-to-long-term debt instrument issued by a company, secured against its assets or unsecured, and typically tradable. Many of Ardent's debt campaigns are structured as debentures.

Debt: A crowdfunding instrument in which the investor lends capital to an issuer at a fixed coupon for a fixed term, and is repaid the principal at maturity. Ranks ahead of equity in insolvency. See also: Crowdfunding types.

Dilution: The reduction in an existing shareholder's percentage ownership of a company when that company issues new shares. Equity investors on Ardent can be diluted by future funding rounds unless they hold and exercise pre-emption rights.

Dividend: A cash (or, occasionally, stock) distribution paid by a company to its shareholders out of profits or retained earnings. Declared at the discretion of the board. Subject to 8% withholding tax at source for Ghanaian resident individuals.

Due Diligence (DD): The structured investigation an investor or platform runs on an issuer before committing capital. On Ardent, issuer-level due diligence is performed by our analyst team before a campaign goes live; investor-level due diligence is your own responsibility.

E

Equity: A crowdfunding instrument under which investors subscribe for shares in the issuer and become shareholders, with voting, dividend, information, and pre-emption rights attached to that share class. Returns come from dividends and capital appreciation. See also: Crowdfunding types.

Escrow: A legal arrangement in which a third party (the custodian bank) holds funds on behalf of two counterparties until a defined condition is met. Every subscription on Ardent sits in escrow until the minimum close amount is reached and cooling-off has expired. See also: Escrow explained.

F

FIC Ghana (Financial Intelligence Centre): Ghana's national financial-intelligence unit, established under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2020 (Act 1044). FIC receives suspicious-transaction reports from regulated firms, including crowdfunding platforms.

Float: The number of a company's shares that are actually available for public trading, as distinct from those held by founders, insiders, or early investors under lock-up. A small float is one driver of illiquidity on private-company equity.

G

GhIPSS (Ghana Interbank Payment & Settlement Systems): The wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of Ghana that operates the national interbank payment infrastructure, including GhIPSS Instant Pay and the GhanaPay wallet. Ardent uses GhIPSS rails for bank-to- bank settlements.

Ghana Card: The biometric national identity card issued by the National Identification Authority. Ardent uses the Ghana Card as the primary identity document for KYC onboarding of Ghanaian residents.

GRA (Ghana Revenue Authority): The Ghanaian tax authority. Ardent, as a regulated paying agent, withholds taxes on interest and dividends at source and remits them to GRA on your behalf.

GSE (Ghana Stock Exchange): The regulated primary exchange in Ghana for publicly listed securities. Ardent CrowdFund operates in the private markets alongside, not within, the GSE.

I

Interest: The compensation paid by a borrower (issuer) to a lender (debt investor) for the use of capital, usually expressed as an annual percentage rate. On Ardent, interest is paid as a periodic coupon and is subject to 8% withholding tax at source for resident individuals. See also: Receiving payments.

K

KYC (Know Your Customer): The identity-verification process every Ardent user completes before they can subscribe to or run a campaign. Combines document verification, biometric liveness, address proof, and sanctions screening. See also: KYC verification.

M

Material Change: An event or fact that emerges after a campaign closes but before funds are released, and which a reasonable investor would consider important to their investment decision. Triggers a re-consent process where every investor gets a fresh 48 hours to withdraw. See also: Escrow explained.

Maturity: The date on which a debt instrument's principal is due to be repaid in full. The maturity date is set in the offer document and may be accompanied by an amortisation schedule for earlier partial repayments.

MoMo (Mobile Money): Ghana's near-ubiquitous mobile-phone wallet rails, operated by MTN (MoMo), Telecel (Cash), and AirtelTigo (Money). Ardent supports MoMo for both funding subscriptions and receiving distributions. See also: Supported payments.

N

Net Asset Value (NAV): The estimated value of a company's assets minus its liabilities, on a per-share basis. Used as one input into the fair-value mark Ardent shows for equity positions between priced rounds.

O

Offer Document: The SEC Ghana–mandated disclosure pack every issuer must publish for a campaign. Covers issuer identity, instrument terms, financials, risks, and directors' responsibility. Always read it before subscribing. See also: Preparing the offer document.

P

PEP (Politically Exposed Person): An individual who holds, or has recently held, a prominent public position, and who therefore presents heightened corruption risk. Ardent runs PEP screening as part of KYC and applies enhanced due diligence where a match is found.

Pre-emption: An existing shareholder's right to subscribe for new shares in proportion to their current holding before those shares are offered to third parties. Pre-emption mitigates dilution risk on future funding rounds. See also: Cap table management.

Pre-money Valuation: The agreed value of a company before new capital is invested in a priced round. The post-money valuation is the pre-money plus the new money. Pre-money is the anchor point for calculating an equity investor's percentage ownership.

Principal: The face amount a debt investor lends to an issuer. Repayment of the principal at maturity (plus periodic interest along the way) constitutes the full debt return.

Q

Qualified Investor: An investor category defined under the Crowdfunding Guidelines for high-net-worth individuals, institutions, and professional investors who meet specific income, assets, or expertise tests. Qualified investors generally have higher (or uncapped) annual investment limits. See also: Investor categories.

R

Retail Investor: The default investor category: an individual who does not meet the qualified-investor tests. Retail investors are further split into Tier 1 and Tier 2 on Ardent, each with its own annual investment cap. See also: Investor limits.

S

SEC Ghana (Securities and Exchange Commission, Ghana): The statutory regulator of Ghana's securities markets under the Securities Industry Act, 2016 (Act 929). SEC Ghana licenses and supervises Ardent CrowdFund and every other crowdfunding platform in the country. See also: SEC Ghana framework.

Securities: Financial instruments that represent an ownership position (equity), a creditor relationship (debt), or rights to ownership (convertibles). The Crowdfunding Guidelines only apply to the offering of securities, which is all Ardent does.

Shares: Units of equity ownership in a company. On Ardent, shares issued in a campaign are credited to your investor account after close and recorded against your line on the cap table.

Susu: A traditional Ghanaian informal rotating savings and credit scheme, in which a group of participants contributes a fixed amount regularly and each takes the pooled amount in turn. Ardent is not a susu; it is a regulated investment platform, but susu culture is part of why group-funding models like crowdfunding resonate in Ghana.

T

Tag-along: A contractual right that entitles a minority shareholder to join ("tag along" with) a sale by a majority shareholder on the same terms. Commonly included in shareholder agreements for Ardent equity raises.

TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number): The unique identifier every Ghanaian taxpayer has with the Ghana Revenue Authority. Ardent collects your TIN at KYC to allow correct withholding and tax-summary reporting.

V

Valuation: The agreed monetary value placed on a company at a particular point in time. Ardent records every priced-round valuation and uses it as one input into the mark it displays for equity positions between rounds.

W

Withholding Tax: A tax deducted at source by the paying agent (Ardent, in the case of coupons and dividends on the platform) and remitted directly to the Ghana Revenue Authority on the investor's behalf. Currently 8% on both interest and dividends for resident individuals. See also: Receiving payments.

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Where to go next

If you learned a new term here, it's often worth jumping to the deeper page that uses it in context: