The Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) and the Bauchi State Government are in talks to begin to dispose of farm yields through the exchange.
This was disclosed by Mrs Zaheera Baba-Ari, the Managing Director, Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) on Friday in Abuja, at a one-day capacity building workshop for commodity exchange stakeholders in Bauchi.
She said the listing of farm products from the state would enable investors and customers have access to millions of agro- commodities produced in the state.
What the NCS said
“NCX has since opened discussions aimed at creating a technical partnership with farmer groups and cooperatives in the state through the auspices of the state Ministry of Commerce and Industry to encourage farmers to dispose of their yields through the exchange’s trading floors.
“Several meetings have been held in this regard and it is hoped that the proposed partnership would kick off in the coming harvest season,” Mrs Baba-Ari said.
She stated that the state produces a wide range of agro-commodities including sesame seed, shea nut, maize, sorghum, paddy rice, groundnut, coffee, cassava, yam, cotton and livestock, among others; and has opened two delivery warehouses in the state located in Gada Maiwa and Gidan Gona.
“It is thus imperative for commodity traders and consumers in Bauchi state to patronize NCX trading floors in order to attract local and international agro-commodities trading business,” she said, adding that the NCX is now equipped to give farmers the many benefits of an efficient and cost-effective commodity trading platform for the procurement of commercially viable volumes of high-quality commodities at the best prevailing market prices.
What you should know
Nairametrics reported earlier this year that the Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) stated it is well-positioned to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), through the implementation of several measures to ensure smooth export operations of Nigerian Commodities.
NCX said it has an established network of 20 warehouses across major production areas in the six geo-political zones of the country for efficient receipt and storage of agro-commodities to be traded on the exchange.
The warehouses, located in Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Benue, Bauchi, Sokoto, Plateau, Ebonyi, Ekiti and Kogi, have a combined capacity to store 50 trillion tonnes of goods. They added that warehouses in Adamawa, Gombe, Taraba, Jigawa, Edo, Cross River and Ondo States would be ready within the year.
The NCX boss said that AfCFTA would help Africa fight challenges that were caused by the pandemic in the continent’s economies through trade.
