Babajide Okeowo
The Securities and Exchange Commission says it will hold a round-table conference on how to further develop the commodities trading.
The acting Director-General, SEC, Ms. Mary Uduk, said the initiative was in line with the commission’s avowed determination to further deepen the capital market and have a vibrant commodities exchange.
She said the conference was scheduled to hold in October, with the theme ‘Building a strong commodities trading ecosystem for inclusive economic development’.
According to Uduk, the conference is expected to convene industry experts, policymakers and thought leaders to have discussions to further develop the commodities market in Nigeria.
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She stated that the objective of the conference was to obtain the buy-in of policymakers and agencies of government and to get perspectives of stakeholders towards encouraging investments and getting more participation in the commodities market.
Uduk said, “The Capital Market Master Plan did an analysis of where we are and where we want to be as the leading capital market in Africa and one of the areas is the commodities market, which is very important, but one of the least developed.
“The Nigerian economy is mainly agrarian-driven, all states of the federation have exportable quantities of commodities and we have some of the highest grades in the world.
“Government wants to diversify to agriculture and so we need to be able to export some of these commodities. If the farmers do very well, the earnings of the country will be boosted” she said.
