Eleni Finances Ghana Commodity Exchange

Dr. Eleni Gabre- Madhin

Dr. Eleni Gabre- Madhin
ELENI, a private commodity exchange promoter in Africa, has announced the formation of a private-public investment consortium to finance the establishment of the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX).

Investment consortium partners include Ghana's top tier financial institutions, Data Bank Agrifund Manager Limited, Ecobank Ghana, UT Bank Ghana, as well as IFC, 8 Miles Fund and Eleni, with minority stakeholding by Government of Ghana.

The consortium partners and Government have jointly signed a letter of intent with the aim of completing the investment process by April 2014 and launching the GCX over a 12 month period through early 2015.

A second consortium is also being formed for large-scale investment in warehouse and logistics infrastructure and equipment in eight delivery sites around Ghana as a strategic eco-system partner to the GCX.

President John Dramani Mahama recently announced that 'as part of efforts to create an orderly, transparent and efficient marketing system for Ghana's key agricultural commodities to promote agricultural investment and enhance productivity, his administration had committed itself to the establishment of a Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) and associated Warehouse Receipt System (WRS).

The move aims to encourage market access and fair returns for smallholder farmers and to facilitate the formalization of informal agricultural trading activities.

It is expected that the establishment of the Ghana Commodity Exchange will position Ghana as a West Africa Regional Hub for commodity trading activities.'

The GCX will start with spot and futures trading of primarily agricultural commodities, including maize, soybeans, paddy rice, palm oil, groundnuts, among others and will introduce other key agricultural and

non-agricultural commodities in what is envisaged as a future regional trading platform.

'This exchange will undoubtedly have a transformative impact on our economy and we are very pleased to

be backing it,' stated Samuel Ashitey Adjei, Managing Director (MD) of Ecobank Ghana Ltd.

'Following on the success of the Ethiopian model, the African commodity exchange momentum is real. We can think of no better time and no better place than Ghana today to start a new thrust of developing an efficient and transparent price discovery platform. Ghana's exchange has every potential to become a leading West African hub for globally traded commodities and we are excited to partner with the consortium to bring this idea to reality,' noted Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Eleni.

 
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