National Commodity Exchange Will Be A Game Changer In Ghana’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda…Value Chain Actors Say

Accra: February 15th, 2016: Commodity value chain actors, who are expected to play key roles in the activities of the yet to be established National Commodity Exchange (GCX) are rallying support for the GCX to work to help alleviate poverty and transform the agricultural value chain in the country while creating wealth for all especially small farm holders.

According to the commodity value chain actors who form the GCX Market Council, there was the need for all stakeholders to come together to fight for the rights of the local Ghanaian farmer whose activities are bedevilled with a number of obstacles such as lack of access to ready market and finance.

These views came to the fore at the second, Market Council meeting organised by the GCX Project on January 28, 2016 in Accra to share updates on the progress of work on the establishment of the National Commodity Exchange.

The Market Council (MC) is composed of various representatives of the commodity market, from producers to traders/wholesalers, aggregators, processors, and others, put together with the intent of soliciting feedback at a bi - monthly consultation on the various outputs of the Project, for the duration of the Project.

The aim of the consultative sessions with the Market Council is to enable the GCX Project Secretariat in its Design and Implementation phase to continuously engage with various stakeholders in order to ensure the relevance and feasibility of the Design, to embark on sensitization and preliminary capacity building, and to build a sense of joint ownership and engagement with the GCX Project.

At the second Market Council session, members were briefed on how trading will be conducted on the Exchange. They were also updated on how clearing and settlement processes will be executed and key benchmarks that will be in place to ensure quality standards are always strictly adhered to.

Sharing their feedback, Market Council members advocated the introduction of the concept of source validation to check the influx of imported commodities from being traded on the National Commodity Exchange (GCX) trading floor to protect local producers especially small holder farmers.

In their view, this will go a long way to address the challenge of imported goods from being trafficked into the country due to artificial shortage and stressed the need for incentivisation to protect local trader interest. They also reiterated their commitment to partner the GCX to intensify market surveillance to proactively address any risk factors that would frustrate the process to create a platform to respond to needs of all market actors.

Earlier, in his opening remarks, the Acting GCX Project Director, Mr. Robert Dowuona Owoo, commended Market Council members for the level of commitment so far demonstrated towards the establishment of the first Commodity Exchange of its kind in West Africa.

The GCX Project is tasked to see to the creation of an orderly organised path that would enhance market efficiency, transparency and integrity through the dissemination of market information in real time to all market players.

It is being financed with equity investment by the Government of Ghana under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Trade and Industry and a private sector financing consortium made up of domestic and global institutional investors.

It is a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) initiative aimed at transforming Ghana’s agricultural sector through the establishment of the first modern commodity exchange in the country andwas launched in June 2015 by the President, H.E. John Mahama.

About GCX Project
The GCX Project is a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) initiative designed to transform Ghana’s agricultural sector through the establishment of the first modern commodity exchange in the country. It is the first of its kind in the West Africa sub region and expected to become operational by late 2016.

The GCX when operational will be a modern market system, where buyers and sellers assured of quality delivery and payment come together to trade. The GCX will operate as a transformational vehicle dedicated to the creation of an up-to-date, transparent and professional market system that impacts the lives of millions of Ghana’s small scale producers, processors and trade.

The GCX will be a national multi-commodity exchange that will provides market integrity, by guaranteeing the product grade and quantity and operating a system of clearing and settling of contracts on a daily basis.

The GCX Project is currently being executed by a team of professionals with made up of Ghanaians with diverse rich experience and expertise, headed by Mr. Robert Dowuona Owoo and Technical Partners, with deep knowledge in the establishment of Commodity Exchanges in Africa and headed by Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, Founder and first CEO of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange.