The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has advocated for a more structured commodities market that will provide a fair playing field for local market participants, while providing the required infrastructure for the international market to be exposed to Nigerian commodities.
SEC’s Acting Director-General Ms. Mary Uduk said this during a briefing on the International Conference on Nigeria Commodities Market holding in Abuja between the 16th and 17th of March, 2020.
She recognized and applauded the federal government’s actions in diversifying the Nigerian economy and moving us away from an overreliance on one commodity.
A structured market for commodities she said, will also provide price discovery to market participants – producers and consumers alike – leading to efficiency and better decision making.
Uduk said the three existing commodities exchanges in Nigeria backed by robust public participation from key stakeholders notably financiers, donors, public stakeholders’/ government officials, and international commodity exchanges as well as the larger Nigerian retail investment community can unlock a vast amount of capital in the short to medium term.
“This is also true for Nigeria’s abundant minerals, especially the solid ones. Many of these minerals are presently dug up on a subsistence basis and sold in markets around the world in disorderly fashion. It is high time we created a market where they would be traded in an orderly manner, to the benefit of the Nigerian economy.
In her remarks, Chairperson of the Market Wide Technical Committee on Commodities Trading Ecosystem, Ms. Daisy Ekine, said the technical committee met severally, wrote its report and looked at the challenges of the commodities ecosystem, the benefits of strengthen the ecosystems and made about 30 recommendations.
