Enabling Ethiopian farmers to get access to finance using agricultural products that they stored in the warehouses of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange is among the major plan for the current fiscal year.
ADDIS ABABA (APA) – The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) is set to launch a system to enable farmers get loan from banks using their agricultural products stored in its warehouses as collateral.
In a press briefing on 3rd August 2019, CEO of the ECX Wondimagegnehu Negera said enabling farmers to get access to finance using products that they stored in the warehouses of ECX is among the major plan for the current fiscal year.
According to Ato Wondimagegnehu, the new system is aimed to help farmers improve their working capital and that increases customers of the commodity exchange.
Testing the new warehouse receipt system will be started soon on farmers who supply maize in the Bure and Nekemte branches of the commodity exchange, he said
The commodity exchange also planned to include Niger seed (also called Nyjer seed) and cotton into the system.
The commodity exchange has also plan include green mung bean and red apricot to the mandatory trading system, in which products are allowed to be transacted only through the ECX, Ato Wondimagegnehu added.
The CEO said the commodity exchange is set to transact $1.3 billion in the current Ethiopian fiscal year, which began on July 8, 2019.
Over 681,845 tons of agricultural products amounting to USD 1.2 billion (ETB 33 billion) was transacted through ECX during the concluded Ethiopian fiscal year.
Established in 2008, the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange is designed to be a marketplace where buyers and sellers meet to trade, assured of quality, delivery and payment. The ECX is a national multi-commodity exchange with the aim of providing market integrity, by guaranteeing the product grade and quantity.
Source: APA News