THE Central Bank of Nigeria, on Thursday, said it would inject about N50billion through its InfraCo structure to reposition the Nigeria Commodity Exchange into a commercially viable platform in Nigeria.
Speaking with crop of financial journalists in Abuja, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, said this would enable the Exchange to deliver efficient pricing of Nigeria’s agric produce.
Emefiele said that an effective and efficient commodity exchange ecosystem had a critical role in achieving the objectives of price stability, through its provision of an organised platform for farmers to trade products in a transparent and efficient market.
President Muhammdu Buhari had recently approved a proposal by the CBN to reposition the Nigerian Commodity Exchange.
The Governor said that the Federal Government, along with the CBN, had implemented several intervention schemes in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors, aimed at boosting employment generation and wealth creation.
The schemes were also aimed at reducing dependence on imported food items, conserving foreign exchange earnings, and spurring economic growth, he said.
He said these interventions in the agricultural sector, particularly the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme and Commodity Development Initiative, sought to strengthen key agricultural commodities’ value chains, enable improved productivity in the agricultural sector, and increase sourcing of inputs locally by stakeholders in the manufacturing sector.
These programs, Emefiele noted, had also helped to improve self-sufficiency in the production of key staple items, in line with the government’s food security objectives.
However, the CBN boss lamented that despite the gains that had been achieved, there were still significant challenges within the Nigerian agricultural commodities value chain that would need to be addressed in order to accelerate investment and productivity in the sector.
He gave some of these challenges to include poor infrastructure and logistics, which impede the movement of produce from farm to market; limited storage and preservation facilities; lack of adequate liquidity to support off-take of agricultural goods.
Others are unavailability of pricing information to market participants; and activities of middlemen who currently aggregate commodities with the sole aim of manipulating prices for selfish gains.
He said, “These core issues that affect Nigeria’s commodity market must be addressed in order to properly harness the benefits that the agriculture sector could provide to our economy.
“There is no doubt that an effective and efficient commodity exchange ecosystem has a critical role in achieving the aforementioned objectives, through its provision of an organised platform for farmers to trade products in a transparent and efficient market.”