Commodities market will promote financial inclusion, enhance govt revenue – SEC

Joseph Inokotong – Abuja

The Commodities Trading Ecosystem come with many benefits such as providing transparent pricing mechanism, promote the attractiveness of agribusiness, foster financial inclusion, improve quality of agricultural output and profitability as well as government revenue.

It also enhances the wellbeing of the farming communities; help reduce rural-urban drift and an important market that is capable of playing a strong role in the nation’s diversification efforts as being championed by the present administration.

This was disclosed by the Acting Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Mary Uduk at a Capacity Building programme for Judges and Top Management of the Investment and Securities Tribunal (IST) on Commodities Trading Ecosystem held in Abuja, Monday.

Uduk, who was represented by Acting Executive Commissioner Operations, SEC, Mr Isyaku Tilde, said it is important to organize the commodities market to enhance its efficiency, growth and competitiveness

which will better position it to play a strong enabling role in food security, employment generation and economic diversification which is the main thrust of the present administration.

The Acting DG said the SEC as part of its implementation of the 10-year Capital Market Master Plan constituted a Technical Committee on Commodities Trading Ecosystem whose mandate was to identify challenges of the existing framework/infrastructure and develop a roadmap for a vibrant ecosystem.

According to her, “The Technical Committee set up to develop a roadmap for reviving the Commodities Trading Ecosystem came up with over forty (40) recommendations to be implemented in 4 phases between 2018 and 2025;

the report also observed the knowledge gap that exists within the ecosystem and recommended the need for capacity building on the Commodities Trading ecosystem to stakeholders and to the general public.

To ensure the implementation of these initiatives, the SEC constituted an Implementation committee consisting of institutional members to drive the process.

She said the training became necessary because of the Investments and Securities Tribunal (IST) statutorily has jurisdiction over securities-related matters and this includes the commodity trading market.

The successful implementation of the Technical Committee’s report she said, will undoubtedly lead to more activities in the market and this will result in disputes.

“Therefore, to effectively make informed decisions on commodities market-related disputes, the judicial and non-judicial staff of the Tribunal requires the basic knowledge on the Commodities Trading Ecosystem.

“It is without a doubt that investors’ protection is at the heart of market regulation.

This implies that the most important participant in the capital market is the investor hence the overriding need for strong regulation and adequate safeguards coupled with an efficient dispute resolution mechanism”, she added.