ASHON plans N50bn commodity exchange in 2018

In line with the Federal Government diversification drive, The Association of Stock Broking Houses of Nigeria (ASHON) is planning to operate a N50 billion commodity exchange in 2018.

Babatunde Sobamowo, chairman, NSBAG made this known during the official launch of the Nigeria Stock Brokers Agribusiness Group (NSBAG) in partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) and Corporate Farmers International recently in Lagos.

“We collaborated to establish the NSBAG to reduce urban migration, enhance food security, reduce poverty levels in the country, create job opportunities for Nigerians and raise farmers’ income.

“Farmers are losing a lot because there is no platform to put to put all agricultural products together to be leveraged. As a result, we are trying to establish a N50 commodity exchange in 2018,” Sobamowo said.

He noted that the collaboration was to design to leverage on opportunities and prospects of agriculture in the country, stating that the platform would create a lot of business opportunities for players in the sector through the capital market.

The chairman added that the platform was also created to bring in small and medium scale agro enterprises into the stock exchange and allow them raise medium or long term finance for their businesses provided they meet the listing requirements.

The operation of the commodity exchange will be done through the Alternative Securities Exchange Market (ASEM) of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), he said.

Also speaking, Kwesi Atta-Krah, director-country alignment and system integration, IITA said that the establishment of NSBAG is an attempt to move the country’s agriculture from its traditional culture to become a business.

“The culture of agriculture is seen as a way of life for the poor but now we have come to the point where we are ensuring that agriculture should be something that provides sustainable and economic opportunities for people,” Atta-Krah said.

In his opening remarks Prince Ade Ajayi, national coordinator, Corporate Farmers International said “the NSBAG is a platform and a movement to organise corporate organisations and other private sector to have a solid voice in promoting agribusiness through real time investment.

Speaking on the vision and future of NSBAG, Akin Alabi, managing partner, Corporate Farmers International said that the vision of the initiative is close the exsiting gaps that would allow active participation of the private sector in the development of Nigeria’s agriculture through the capital market.

Solomon Olakanmi, secretary, NSBAG, said “for Nigeria’s agriculture to fly it requires finance and most of the loans available to the sector are short term loans. But some agricultural production requires mid-term or long term loans and that is where we come in.”

“We have a platform where we can raise equity and packaged funds like hedge funds that would take care of certain aspects of agribusiness depending on their risks and rate of returns,” he added.

 

Josephine Okojie