The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said, Nigeria has various commodities that could be exported in a bid to grow the economy, provide jobs for Nigerians as well as provide the nation with forex.
Director-general of SEC, Mr. Lamido Yuguda, who stated this while speaking to journalists in Lagos, noted that, the agricultural sector is expected to grow significantly in the near future.
Yuguda disclosed that, in its desire to ensure that agricultural products are of exportable standards and quality, the commission is collaborating with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to develop standards for commodities.
He disclosed that, as a result of the collaboration with SON, some of the standards have been developed and being exposed to different markets close by and they have been received very well.
The DG noted that the development of these standards will pave way for export of these products to the international market and in turn boost the Nigerian economy.
The commission, he stressed, is pleased about the new government’s mention of supporting the commodities sector as it will further boost the SEC’s efforts at developing the commodities sector.
He noted that, “already, we have licensed a total of five commodity exchanges, and also approved the trading and framework for operations of different instruments.
“This is a sector that the Commission has been working strenuously to encourage, both agricultural commodities and mineral commodities among others. This is a market that has a lot of potentials for Nigeria. We are a very good agricultural nation and we have a lot of resources and right now most of them are sold in local markets without any form standards and because of that a lot of our agricultural produce is rejected in the international market.
“You see smaller countries are able to export their agricultural products especially fruits. Our fruits are among the best in the world, but unfortunately, we are not participating in this market because of the issues of standardisation.”
Yuguda stated that, as part of the implementation of the Capital Market Master Plan, the commission constituted a Technical Committee on commodities Trading Ecosystem whose mandate was to identify challenges of the existing framework and develop a roadmap for a vibrant ecosystem.
“A committee comprising various stakeholders including the SON was set up to drive the implementation of the report. One of the recommendations in the report identified development of grading and standardisation system in line with international best practice,” he said.
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