Mrs Tucci Goko Ivowi, the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX), speaking at minister’s Press Briefing said Ghana recorded improved quality in commodity, reduction in post-harvest losses and lower transaction cost.

Commenting on the journey so far for the Commodity Exchange in Accra, Mrs Ivowi stated that the coming into force of the Commodity Exchange has seen an increase in jobs for haulage and other service providers.

The CEO also noted that, through the Exchange’s interventions, it has brought standards across markets and trading within defined rules in the country. She mentioned that, it has also provided readily available market, data and better prices for farmers.

Moreover, the CEO highlighted the importance of the Commodity Exchange. “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.” Furthermore, Mrs Ivowi identified access to storage, markets and finance as three key areas of interventions that the Ghana Commodity Exchange is set to transform.

More so, she noted that regulation of the Commodity Exchange has 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.”

In the intervening time, as a strategic policy direction, the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) has linkages with the ‘Planting for food and jobs’ to provide wider access to markets in support of improved quality and increased production.

It was also linked to the One District, One Warehouse programme to support the Commodity Exchange Warehouse receipt system.

In addition. Mrs Tucci Goko Ivowi noted that the Ghana Commodity Exchange 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 are 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.

Meanwhile, an Expert has charged financial institutions to support agricultural value chain to help drive the Commodity Exchange market. The Head of Investment at RDF Ghana, a development finance organization, Angela Klufio speaking at the Ghana Commodity Exchange Webinar Series on the theme Innovative Financial Solutions for Agricultural Actors pointed out that the potential for giving loans to the agricultural sector is vast.

“There are various sectors of the economy demanding this but the strongest demand comes from the agricultural sector. The potential for giving large loans to this sector is so vast. Across the country, we have agricultural companies across every region. They range from smallholder farmers, all the whole to mostly medium scale enterprises, to a few large enterprises.”