By Chinwendu Obienyi
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has stated it is working to ensure that the commodities market gets all the support required to grow and support the economy, its Director General, Lamido Yuguda, revealed in a statement on Monday.
Yuguda said that Nigeria currently has about six commodities exchanges and is doing more to bring them up to standard.
He said, “We cannot say that we want to grow the agricultural part of our economy if we do not have a market to support it and that is what we are doing. That market is growing in leaps and bounds, so that is another achievement.
We are beginning to see some results of our efforts in that area. Before now, when we did not have this market, farmers were not able to get good price discovery for their products. Therefore, if you have a good commodities exchange, it helps price discovery and it helps credit to flow to the farmers.”
He further added that because there is good price discovery, people can now ascertain what they can get if they farm a particular produce within a particular period. According to him, this is the value chain that the commodities segment of the market is opening up to.
“You will soon start seeing it. It is happening but you know it is a new area, it is growing and it is an area we are proud of. It is growing in leaps and bounds; you can see the percentage growth that we have. But I must tell you, it is still a small market compared to the size of the Nigerian economy but then they said the journey of a thousand miles starts with a step and I can tell we have made many steps in that direction.
He disclosed that the SEC has increased the number of products in the market as the market now has derivatives and also started to support the non-interest capital market.
“We are now getting issuances in the non-interest area and we are expanding the opportunities for everyone.
We are also involved in integrating the capital markets across Africa and across the West African region too, we are a pace setter there. We are also trying to expand what is available to people who are investors in Nigeria so these are things we have done. I am not saying that the SEC has done all that is possible to do but I know that we are on track,” Yuguda added.