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The development of the commodities ecosystem would help the country achieve its quest for sustainable foreign exchange earnings and economic development.
Thus, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reiterated its commitment to developing the commodities ecosystem in Nigeria to boost its non-oil sector.
The commission’s commitment was made known to journalists by the Director, Lagos Zonal Office of the Commission, Hafsat Rufia at the just concluded 2022 annual conference of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN), held in Lagos over the weekend.
The conference had as its theme, ‘Boosting Domestic Capacity for Sustainable Export Earnings’.
Rufai, who represented the Director-General of SEC, Lamido Yuguda, at the event, said “We believe that implementation of the roadmap for a vibrant commodities trading ecosystem in Nigeria by the Commission will support development of the agricultural sector and diversification of the Nigerian economy and, ultimately, advance the country towards attaining sustainable foreign exchange earnings.”
According to SEC, it is imperative that the country focuses on all the sustainable foreign exchange earning avenues of the capital market for support over the medium to long term.
“We must, therefore, leverage on the capital market through the commodities ecosystem, the equity and bond markets to develop and exploit all the potential sources of forex.”
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics, states that the total value of capital importation into Nigeria in the second quarter of 2022 stood at $1.535 billion.
The largest amount of portfolio investment went to money market instruments – 55.8 per cent ($422.56 million). Bonds followed with 42.5 per cent ($322.04 million) and Equities accounted for 1.68 per cent ($12.72 million) of portfolio investment in Q2 2022.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said that it will continue to advocate for a unified foreign exchange rate in order to attract more foreign portfolio investments into the country.
“We appreciate the efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria in exchange rate management and will support in whatever way we can to enable achievement of the objective of exchange rate stability.”
Hauwa Abu
