As part part of the strategies to foster a thriving commodity-trading ecosystem, the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, it was set to provide a platform for selected players in the commodities trading ecosystem to engage with mining companies on opportunities for accessing long-term funding in the Nigerian Capital Market.
According to the Commission, in a statement on said this will foster a thriving commodity-trading ecosystem.
The master plan designates commodities exchanges as critical for enabling investment diversification, risk management, price discovery and transactional efficiency.
Already, SEC said it will be holding a workshop themed ‘Financing the solid minerals sector through the capital market and the critical role of the commodities exchanges’ this July in Lagos on the proposed platform.
The workshop, which is organised in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, is to enlighten capital market operators on the roles of the mining industry and how it could admit players in the solid minerals extractive industry into the commodities trading ecosystem.
The SEC Director General, Mr Lamido Yuguda, had recently said that commodities exchanges will create jobs and facilitate economic development, among other benefits, adding that such exchanges are critical to enabling investment diversification, risk management, price discovery and transactional efficiency.
Yuguda stated that Commodities Exchanges have the potential to efficiently link commodities to industries, thereby creating jobs, improving living standards, unlocking the economic potentials of farming communities, promoting rural development, enhancing the financial inclusion of smallholder farmers, and ultimately facilitating economic development, amongst other benefits.
According to the SEC DG, the Technical Committee on Commodities Trading Ecosystem had, in 2017, developed a roadmap for the actualisation of a vibrant commodities ecosystem. The Committee specifically identified the development of a grading and standardisation system that will align with international best practices as an important precursor to achieving vibrancy in the ecosystem.
“I am happy to report that the Ecosystem Roadmap Implementation Committee has been working tirelessly on the development of a grading and standardisation system,” he added.
