Nigeria: Agro-Commodities Market Bigger Than NSE - Cban

Kano — Commodity Brokers Association of Nigeria (CBAN) has said that based on the analysis of the economic performance of the country in 2012 that gave the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as approximately N47.55 trillion and the benchmark of 38.4 percent of GDP to agriculture in the 2013 budget, the commodities market can be valued at N18.26 trillion.

This, it also said, clearly indicates that by market capitalization, the agro-commodities market is larger than the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Speaking during a stakeholders meeting in collaboration with the Abuja Securities and Commodity Exchange (ASCE) in Kano, the newly elected President of CBAN, Altine Shehu Kajiji, said with market capitalization of N11.77 trillion as at May 21, 2013, agro-commodities market is larger than the Nigerian Stock Exchange
by 64 percent.

According to the president, the indices have shown clearly why the federal government intends to increase the contribution of non-oil revenue to overall collectible revenue with the policy thrust revolving round commercial agriculture.

He added that CBAN foresees entering into a strategic alliance with domestic and international universities, training academies and agricultural institutes in a bid to keep members abreast with information ranging from new seed varieties, latest farming technologies, global agric finance and insurance so as to accelerate the learning culture and capacity of members.

In his speech, the Managing Director of ASCE, who is also the chairman of the stakeholder's meeting, Malam Yusuf Abdurrahman, told commodity brokers that there is need for them to develop a very powerful alliance that will provide the possibility to be utilized by foreign investors into the Nigerian economy.
He also called on them to give CBAN maximum cooperation to utilize and mobilize human, financial and technical capital in transforming the commodity brokers' association into a world class institute for commodities trading and operations.