Gilbert Ekugbe
The Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) has called on government agencies charged with managing operations of Nigeria’s agro commodity to partner the exchange to ameliorate the menace of rising food prices in the country.
The Managing Director/CEO of the Exchange, Mrs. Zaheera Baba-Ari, made the appeal recently while delivering the opening remarks in Kano at a capacity building workshop on agro-commodity trading and warehouse management for farmers, agro-processors and other market actors domiciled in Kano state and environs.
Baba-Ari identified Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and National Food Reserve Agency among several government Ministries, Agencies and Departments, (MDAs), that NCX would approach for the collaborative effort to put heads together to ameliorate the rising domestic food prices and general inflationary trend in the nation’s commodity trading sector.
He recalled the mandate handed down by President Muhammadu Buhari to selected government organs to halt the rising domestic food prices and stated that the Exchange was very much ready to partner with relevant sister agencies of government in this regard and announced that NCX intends to reach out to the afore-mentioned agencies and others with a view towards creating a common platform to establish synergies to meet the presidential mandate.
“I hereby call on domestic and international investors with interest in relevant segments of the country’s agro-commodity trading sector to link up with NCX to develop their business in commodity export, trading, warehousing, collateral management, logistics, financing, to name but a few. Needless to say, the presidential mandate highlights opportunities for investors in the ecosystem that they can take advantage of in the immediate, medium and long term,” she said.
In her words: “State and local governments located in the country’s major production areas of commercially viable agro-commodities are also encouraged to link up with NCX in order to boost the fortunes of their indigenes. In the same vein, major commodity groups and associations across the country are hereby called upon to partner with NCX as a means of enhancing their operations.”
In his remarks, the Kano State Commissioner for Commerce, Industries, Cooperative and Mineral Resources, Mr. Ibrahim Mukhtar, commended NCX for establishing a spot trading floor in Kano and pledged to work towards securing the support of the State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, to improving commodity trading operations in the area in partnership with the NCX.
Mukhtar identified the benefits of patronising NCX to include ease of trading from remote locations with consumers located around the world, price discovery for participants as well as improved return on investment for farmers and merchants domiciled within Kano state and its environs, noting that the socio-economic wellbeing of the indigenes would thus be enhanced.
