By Chioma Obinagwam
The Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, has said that a more organized Commodities Exchange Market in the country would enhance efficiency and lead to economic growth and development.
The Ag. Director General (DG) of the SEC Ms. Mary Uduk started this when she received members of the Commodities Trading Ecosystem Implementation Committee in her office in Abuja, weekend.
Uduk said the Commodities market is an integral part of the economy whose potentials have not yet be fully harnessed for the country to enjoy the benefits therein.
She further stated that there is a lot of benefits in promoting commodity exchanges and the ecosystem in general as they provide a transparent pricing mechanism, promote attractiveness of agribusiness, foster financial inclusion and improve quality of agricultural output and profitability as well as government revenue. It also enhances the wellbeing of the farming communities and help reduce rural – urban drift.
The Commodities Trading Ecosystem Implementation Committee has Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigerian Commodity Exchange (NCX), Financial System Strategy (FSS) 2020, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), Financial Markets Dealers Quotations (FMDQ) and AFEX as members that have been mandated to implement recommendations of the report of the Technical Committee on Commodities Trading Ecosystem.
Ms. Daisy Ekineh who led the team, gave an update of the Committee’s activities to the SEC team.
Ekineh commended the SEC on it’s efforts towards ensuring a vibrant Commodities Ecosystem in Nigeria.
The Committee developed a roadmap for educating and enlightening all stakeholders to enable them understand the responsibility of each stakeholder and is planning an International Stakeholders conference chaired by NIRSAL with people from all over the world scheduled to attend.
