No losses in business on commodities market
Officials of the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) Project have assured members of aggregator groups in the country that they will not suffer losses in the commodity value chain when the exchange fully becomes operational later this year.
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A women’s group whose members would participate in the commodities value chain fear losses in their businesses and livelihoods when the exchange becomes operational later in the year.
But the Membership Manager of the GCX Project, Mr Richard Ankrah, said the project was a response to tackle the myriad of challenges facing smallholder farmers and associated value chain actors, because it would halt the perennial post-harvest losses and access to capital.
He explained that the existence of a national GCX would not in any way take their sources of livelihood away from them but rather provide a ready, orderly, transparent trading platform that would facilitate trade by easily connecting buyers and sellers.
Mr Ankrah noted that “the GCX operational model would present numerous opportunities to aggregators to continue to execute their role in the value chain business”.
‘GCX will initially commence trading in maize, soya and paddy rice in its first year of operation and bring on board other commodities later”, Mr Ankrah said.
Informal employment
“Agric is a dominant sector of the economy that offers informal employment to the vast majority of the country’s population; and that is why we need a platform that is backed by a warehouse receipt system as a springboard for national economic growth and prosperity,” Mr Ankrah said.
Speaking at separate sensitisation sessions with some members of the Women Aggregators’ Group Association, ‘Women Can’, in Tema and Kumasi, Mr Ankrah said, “through this project, agro-processors and sector actors along the value chain will have a reliable supply of quality commodities to push the quest for value addition to local raw materials”.
The GCX Project is a public-private partnership deal between the government and a private sector financing consortium comprising credible domestic and global institutional investors: Ecobank Ghana Limited; GCB Bank Limited; London-based private equity fund, 8 Miles Fund; and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Frontier markets
The project is being implemented by Dr Eleni Gabre-Madhin, a recognised industry leader in establishing and operating commodity exchanges in frontier markets.
The system also creates incentives for improving quality since producers now have better knowledge of the premium paid for a higher quality commodity and thus take steps to improve the grade of their products. For the first two years of ECX’s operation, Ethiopia witnessed a tripling in the volume of top three coffee grades coming into the market.
The President of the association, Madam Kate Dugan, reiterated the commitment of the group to maintain the relationship with GCX and ensure they are updated regularly to preserve their active involvement in the pursuit to transform Ghana’s economy while creating prosperity for all in the commodity value chain, while making the country a regional and global commodity trading hub.
Madam Dugan urged the GCX to consider the possibility of adding peanut and cashew to the commodities to be traded when operational; a concern Mr Ankrah noted would be considered in the next phase during the contract design for new commodities for the GCX.
The sensitisation programme was part of the awareness-creation outreach campaign by the GCX Project to share information with prospective members on available opportunities when the exchange is established.
‘Women Can’ is an association of female aggregators who engage in spot buy trade in cashew, peanuts, maize, rice and soya bean.