By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigeria’s Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) last week parleyed regional commodity exchange, East Africa Exchange (EAX) in Kigali Rwanda during the 49th Annual African Development Bank (AfDB) meetings.
Arunma Oteh, director general of Nigeria’s SEC led a delegation to EAX during the AfDB meetings in Kigali and said she visited to acquaint with the exchange’s operations as well as witness the progress it has made since it began operations in 2013.
Paul Kukubo, chief executive officer (CEO) of EAX told the Nigeria’s SEC delegation that their expansion strategy for the East Africa region and plans is to launch new offices in Kenya and Uganda.
Kukubo said the Rwandan government has recently made available thirteen (13) warehouses located in several grain production sites of the country in support of farmer cooperative groups.
He affirmed that the EAX will support farmers to address post-harvest losses through better storage and collateral management. ‘’The Exchange has signed up Collateral Management International, a highly reputable collateral manager worldwide to support the farmers in addressing post-harvest losses and improve farmer’s income,’’ he said.
The EAX chief further affirmed that it will also provide the farmers access to finance, linking them to banks through its electronic warehouse receipts program, as well as providing a trading platform for the farmers to trade their product.
‘’An electronic warehouse receipt represents commodities stored in an exchange-accredited warehouse with specific quality, quantity, ownership, and reference location stated on the receipt. The integrity of
the receipt is guaranteed by a collateral manager who maintains the quality and quantity of stored commodities,’’ Kukubo said.
Aurore Mimosa Munyangaju, the EAX trading manager at the regional commodity exchange demonstrated the use of the NASDAQ trading platform on its bourse and disclosed that over 200 users including farmers have been trained and used the platform for trading since the exchange commenced operations.
Oteh on her part congratulated EAX for their initiatives to support smallholder farmers to reduce post-harvest losses and improve their income as well as progress in linking commodity markets across the East African Community area, and promoting cross border trade across the region.
The Nigeria’s SEC chief said Nigeria has a similar effort and the two countries can share common experience to that regard.
Amongst the SEC’s delegation was Samuel Nwanze, a board member of the African Exchange Holding Company and director at Heirs Holdings, the proprietary investment company owned by Tony Elumelu, one of the exchange’s key partners, as well as Christopher Marks, former Global Head of Debt Capital, BNP ParibasBank (France).
