Kayode Tokede
The Lagos state government, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-olu, yesterday in Lagos joined key capital market stakeholders to officially launch the Lagos Commodities & Future Exchange.
Sanwo-olu, who was a special guest of honour, noted that the state government is committed to improving the living environment for businesses, and for the investments to thrive in Lagos and the country at large.
He mentioned that the state is poised at attracting cutting-edge ideas and innovations, stressing that these innovations are targeted at improving the inflow of financial transactions, which is expected to enable businesses to flourish and institutions to grow.
According to him, the unveiling of Lagos Commodities & Future Exchange, dedicated electronic trading of agriculture products, solid minerals, oil &gas, is in partnership with other commodities exchanges around the world.
Sanwo-olu, who unveiled the Eko gold spot noted that, “We are witnessing, more importantly, the gold spot contract series, which is valued at about 100 million pounds sterling, comprising gold-backed financial instruments that will be listed and traded on Lagos Commodity & Future Exchange.
“These gold coins will be known as Eko gold coins and this first trench is designed as a proof of concepts. It comprises of 58 units of the coin valued at over N100 million. I’m told the future is listing of Eko gold coins will take place in tranches of 10 million pounds sterling each.
“This is no doubt the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in the investment community in Lagos, Nigeria, and indeed around the world.
“I’m certainly very confident that we’ll see a deepening of an emerging commodities trading ecosystem, as well as an increased investment in agriculture, mining, in oil and gas exploration in Nigeria, and even to the opportunity to take advantage of all of these numerous offerings that will be listed on the Lagos commodities and futures market.”
Speaking earlier, the Director-General, Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr. Lamido Yuguda, who was represented by Executive Commissioner, SEC, Mr. Dayo Obisan noted that the launching of Lagos Commodities & Future Exchange is a giant stride in Nigeria’s capital market.
According to him, “Commodities Exchanges are critical for an enabling investment that is efficient, risk management, price discovery and transactional efficiency. To boost Nigeria’s competitiveness and transactional efficiency, we must develop the commodities trading Ecosystem.”
He noted that the apex capital market regulating body is committed to developing the Commodities Exchange Ecosystem, stressing that SEC is complementing government effort towards developing agriculture and solid minerals sectors as part of the government plan to diversify the nation’s economy.
The Chairman board of directors for the commissioning of Lagos Commodities Futures and Exchange, Chief Onyenwechukwu Patrickezeagu in his opening speech said,” The journey to accomplishing this has been long but fulfilling. Since 2015, there has been a lot of emphasis by the present Federal Administration on diversifying the economy from a crude oil-dependent economy to other critical economic sectors such as Agriculture and Solid Minerals.
“We keyed into the vision and identified the need for a platform to facilitate transparent and orderly trade of these commodities. It was out of this that the Lagos Commodities and Futures Exchange was founded with the intention to create a platform that encourages transparent price discovery, mitigates price risks and bridge the gap between the Financial and Commodities sectors of the economy.”
He noted further that, “The Exchange has conducted series of system tests and successful trades through its Trade Matching Engine, and this is a first step in fulfilling our mission to catalyse and transform the Nigerian economy and creating value as well as wealth for all the stakeholders.
“We have conducted numerous training capacity building and sensitization sessions to help our stakeholders navigate and harness the full potential of the Nigerian Commodities ecosystem geared toward transforming the Nigerian Economy at large.”
