Consortium formed to finance Ghana commodity exchange

|By TAP Staff| A private-public investment consortium has been formed to finance the establishment of the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX).

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

The consortium partners and the Government of Ghana have 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 in formation for a large-scale investment in warehouse and logistics infrastructure and equipment in 8 delivery sites around Ghana as a strategic eco-system partner to the GCX.

The plan to establish Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) and associated Warehouse Receipt System (WRS) to create an orderly, transparent and efficient marketing system for Ghana’s key agricultural commodities to promote agricultural investment and enhance productivity was announced by President John Dramani Mahama in February.

It is expected that the establishment of the Ghana Commodity Exchange will position it 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.