Ghana records improved quality in commodity, reduction in post-harvest losses and lower transaction cost, Mrs Tucci Goko Ivowi, the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Commodity Exchange, said on Sunday.
She said the coming into force of the Commodity Exchange had seen an increase in jobs for haulage and other service providers.
Mrs Ivowi was speaking at the Minister’s Press Briefing on the journey so far for the Exchange in Accra.
She said it had also provided readily available market, data and better prices for farmers.
The CEO said through the Exchange’s interventions, it had brought standards across markets and trading within defined rules.
The Commodity Exchange is to transform Ghana’s economy by creating prosperity for all commodity value chains and become a regional and global trading hub for all commodities.
There were three key areas of interventions; access to storage, markets and finance, Mrs Ivowi said.
She said it had also brought contract enforcement, assurance and trust in transaction and delivering.
“We are a regulated market, which establishes linkages between commodity producers and buyers to secure competitive prices for their products, assuring the market quantity and quality as well as timely settlement of their trade,” the CEO said.
As a strategic policy direction, the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) had linkages with the ‘Planting for food and jobs’ to provide wider access to markets in support of improved quality and increase production, she said.
It was also linked to the One District, One Warehouse programme to support the Commodity Exchange Warehouse receipt system.
Mrs Ivowi said the GCX also had some linkages with the One District, One Factory, which was to serve as an off taker through the procurement and processing of quality grain purchase.
Some of the strategic partnerships formed over the period were Venture Capital Trust Fund allocation of Ghc5-million for aggregation of selected commodities in the GCX’s Warehouse, and the establishment of a GHc1-million credit line of the Rural Development Fund Ghana for Soy and Maize aggregation with the potential to extend to GHc10-million to fund other commodities and brokers.
