March 15, 2020/SEC Nigeria
The Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC has disclosed that the outcome of the International Conference on Nigeria’s Commodities Market, ICNCM 2020 is expected to make the much desired impact on the commodities trading that would stimulate Nigeria’s capital market and economic growth.
Acting Director general of the Commission, Mary Uduk, who stated this Sunday in Abuja, said the Commission through the activities of the Technical Committee (TC) on Commodities Trading Ecosystem is hosting the conference whose outcome is expected to make the much desired impact on the capital market and economy in general.
The Technical Committee draws members from various stakeholders in the commodities ecosystem including the Central Bank of Nigeria, Financial Markets Dealers Quotations (FMDQ), Nigeria Stock
Exchange (NSE), Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), Bank of Agriculture (BOA), The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System (NIRSAL), Financial Systems Strategy (FSS 2020), AFEX Commodities Exchange Ltd and the Nigerian Commodity Exchange (NCX).
Uduk stated that the commodities trading ecosystem in Nigeria has been one to watch for the past couple of years, with the Federal Government intensified efforts towards diversifying the economy and reducing overdependence on crude oil.
“A lot of investments have been channelled towards the commodities space especially the agricultural commodity market space. Numerous programmes such as the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme as well as the NEXIM Bank Export stimulation Fund are some of the few deliberate efforts of Government to ensure food stability and sufficiency in the country,” she noted.
The Acting DG stated that the SEC aims to have an efficient commodities exchange because the commodities sector of the capital market is dormant which is why the Commission is leading other capital market stakeholders on capacity building and public enlightenment campaigns.
According to Uduk, “The Capital Market Master Plan did an analysis of where we are and where we want to be as the leading capital market in Africa, and one of the areas is the commodities market which is very important, but one of the least developed. The Nigerian economy is mainly agrarian driven; all states of the federation have exportable quantities of commodities and we have some of the highest grades in the world.
“The government wants to diversify to agriculture, and so we need to be able to export some of these commodities. If the farmers do very well, the earnings of the country will be boosted.”
“We are going to have two days of robust discussions from Monday March 16 to Tuesday March 17 on what we need to do to have a vibrant commodities ecosystem in Nigeria”
