NIGERIA – Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) has commissioned 12 delivery warehouses with a combined capacity of more than 26,000MT for the provision of state-of-the-art storage and quality assurance services.
The warehouses are located in different regions across the country i.e. Zamfara, Bauchi, Kogi, Ekiti, Ebonyi, Sokoto, Kaduna, Nassarawa and Kano states.
They will facilitate trade in cocoa, sesame seed, soya beans, maize, sorghum, cashew, paddy rice and cow pea, among other commercially viable agricultural commodities.
The Managing Director of the Exchange, Zaheera Baba-Ari said that the warehouses were being established to support trading activities on its floor for the benefit of Nigerian commodity traders and consumers, including food processors, exporters, National Food Reserve Agency and World Food Program, among others.
The MD revealed that under the next phase of the programme, more warehouses would be rolled out in Adamawa, Cross River, Ondo, Oyo and Lagos states, in addition to others located in the states already covered.
Relevant stakeholders have been urged to take advantage of the NCX warehouses for year-round availability of high quality raw materials input for improved productive industrial capacity, reports Daily Trust.
NCX was originally incorporated as a Stock Exchange platform on June 1998. It commenced electronic trading in securities in May 2001 and was converted to a commodity Exchange on August 2001 and brought under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Commerce.
The conversion was premised on the need for an alternative institutional arrangement that would manage the effect of price fluctuations in the marketing of agricultural produce which has adversely affected the earnings of farmers since the abolishment of commodity Boards in 1986.
The launch of new ware-houses comes months after AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited, a private firm in Nigeria secured investment from Consonance Investment Managers, to deepen retail commodity transactions, strengthen operations and technology systems.
The Abuja-based company has developed a commodities exchange for products like sorghum, maize and cocoa, underpinned by more than 100,000 smallholder farmers who are supported by AFEX in gaining access to credit (through microfinance partners) and farm inputs.
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