GHANA – The Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Taft Group of companies, led by Taft Capital, that seeks to improve operations in the commodity exchange platform.

According to a GhanaWeb report, the agreement seeks to provide the exchange with innovative solutions through integrating information technology, enhancing access to markets, warehousing, logistics, and funding.

The MoU will see the two organisations collaborating to enhance the performance of the commodity value chain in Ghana with an overall aim of transfroming the country’s agriculture sector.

Taft, a major player in the agribusiness sector, has committed to provide the commodity exchange platform with the necessary tools to develop the West African country’s agribusiness sector.

Taft will provide a raft of services through its affiliates for various GCX projects and activities.

This will include provision of logistical solutions for the management of products from farm gate to GCX delivery centres and warehouses to complement the Exchange’s work in providing this much needed access to secured storage.

The firm will bring on board; Movelle,a commodity trading company; MRL, a logistics and commercial real estate company; AgNexus, a Fintech and Agtech company and Agridemy, an innovative capacity building organisation.

Taft has committed to deploy an IT platform through its AgNexus proprietary software, which will link farmers to financing institutions and provide them with lending credit.

Taft will also assign a credit rating to individual farmers that allows them to attain commercial capital without needing to sell their product at lower prices during the early post-harvest phase.

The agreement will also see the two parties join forces to promote transparency and the increased penetration of credit and agricultural finance to enable the Ghana Commodity Exchange and Taft reach shared objectives.

In addition to boosting GCX’s operations, this will also strengthen the Exchanges’ ambitions of increasing farmers’ bargaining power and share of created value, while ensuring integrity and transparency of trade.

Launched in November 2018, GCX has grown into over 120 members, comprising 40 farmer groups representing over 120,000 farmers and integrated 25 commodity brokers.

The Exchange recently added soya bean contracts to its list of traded commodities and will soon add sesame seeds and sorghum.