The Nigeria Agribusiness Register (NAR) said it would partner National Shea Products Association of Nigeria (NASPAN) to trade shea butter as commodity exchange for the Nation’s economic benefit.
Its founder, Mr Roland Oroh, disclosed this in an interview on Friday in Abuja while discussing the benefits of trading of agricultural products internationally.
Oroh said shea nut kernel was one of the commodities that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recommended to be included as tradable commodity in Nigeria commodity exchanges.
He said it was agreed by SEC that part of its implementation of a 10-year Capital Market Master Plan was to constitute a technical committee on Commodities Trading Ecosystem.
One of the recommendations of the committee was to identify commodities with good supply base in Nigeria for inclusion as a tradable commodity in the Nigeria Commodity Exchanges.
According to him, Nigeria has the largest number of shea trees in the world and contributes over 60 per cent of the total shea nut produced annually in West Africa.
“Nigeria can supply shea nut kernel to local buyers and those in West Africa while developing a local processing industry.”
He said that a panel session held at the second agribusiness networking (Agnet) titled, “Trading Shea Nuts and Shea Butter in Commodity Exchanges in Nigeria: How to Make It Happen” noted that shea was a tradable commodity.
He said that the Representatives of AFEX and the Lagos Commodity & Futures Exchange were of the view that the benefit of trading shea would increase quality and sustainability of the product from the production areas.
Oroh said NASPAN, the Agribusiness Register, the Commodity Brokers Association of Nigeria and the nation’s commodity exchanges and other stakeholders would work to make shea trading on the nation’s exchanges a reality.
The NAR is supporting food and agribusiness investments in Nigeria and West Africa to scale and also turn impact-oriented investment intentions into actual investments.
They are the agribusiness investment facilitation arm of Commodities Development Initiative (CDI) a commercial NGO registered under the corporate laws of Nigeria.
NAR’s mission is to create impact and increase inclusion by supporting agribusiness start-ups and scale-ups with information, grants and access to impact capital and product markets.
This is through several products and services including the AgNet event, which brings fund providers and project promoters together to make commitments.
