SABEX, which was designed to facilitate the exchange of agro commodities, operates through an ecosystem of buyers, financiers, warehouse operators and other players in the agro commodity trading business across Nigeria. On SABEX, traders – typically farmers – can pledge their warehoused agricultural goods as collateral to access instant loans to facilitate their business growth.
Suleiman said the webinar had the objective of developing trust in the commodity market because there is currently no trust among players in the sub-sector, starting from farmers to micro players and exporters across the value chain.
He said there is a need to build trust in the payment, partnership, product, price and delivery elements of the agro commodity trading business. He added that “We need to financialise commodities to the point that they are similar to digital assets.”
By Nume Ekeghe
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sterling Bank Plc, Mr. Abubakar Suleiman, has identified lack of trust as the main problem affecting the growth and development of the Nigerian commodity market.
He disclosed this while delivering a welcome address during a webinar organised recently as part of measures to promote SABEX, a digital commodity exchange empowered by blockchain technology. The webinar held with the theme: âAgro Commodities as a Viable Asset Class.â
SABEX, which was designed to facilitate the exchange of agro commodities, operates through an ecosystem of buyers, financiers, warehouse operators and other players in the agro commodity trading business across Nigeria.
8 min read
The Nigerian government’s repeated decision to turn to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for deficit financing of its budgets continues to generate ripples about the state of public finance management and fiscal stability in Africa’s largest economy.
Apart from its struggles to stabilise the foreign exchange market and control inflation, the Nigerian apex bank has remained a source of cheap deficit financing for the Nigerian government in recent years, leaving analysts concerned about what the practice portends for the economy.
The government reported a revenue shortfall of about 27 per cent in 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic affected global demand for oil and prices slumped. The attendant lockdown, flight restriction, and related disruptions affected the nation’s mainstay, raising the need to borrow to fund the budget.