GCX Project extends sensitisation to GSIA

Members of the Ghana Securities Industries Association (GSIA), the umbrella-body for brokerage firms in the country, have indicated their aspiration to see full enforcement of a robust regulatory and legal framework that will stimulate trading and participation of all market actors on the National Commodity Exchange (GCX) when it becomes operational.

This was made known when the GCX Project team met with members of the GSIA in a one-day awareness and sensitisation programme held at the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Accra to update stakeholders in the commodity value chain on the status of the Project’s operations. The sensitisation programme was to share information on the Membership Structure and Recruitment Design, and opportunities open to market actors when GCX becomes operational.

Leading discussions at the sensitisation programme, Acting Project Director Mr. Robert Dowuona Owoo thanked the brokers for their participation -- explaining that the objective of the GCX is to transform the lives of Ghanaians in general and in particular those who participate in the agriculture value chain.

He disclosed that a concept of partial mandating is being explored to ensure that the Exchange has the needed volumes so as to make trading attractive to members of the Exchange. According to Mr. Owoo, the partial mandating concept will encourage sustained active participation of market actors on the Exchange.

The partial mandating concept will allow the Regulator to require that certain commodities or volumes of commodities be traded on an Exchange from time to time. This policy, if adopted, will also compel institutions that purchase huge volumes of all commodities -- which meet the quality GCX will trade in future -- to do so on the Exchange through Brokers.

Delivering a presentation on the Membership Structure and Requirements design for the GCX, Membership Manager of the GCX Mr. Richard Ankrah explained that there are five (5) categories of membership, namely: Institutional, Trading, Brokering, Clearing and Associate. He clarified that categorisation of the membership structure has been done to enable all market actors to participate in GCX activities through any category as part of the Exchange’s all-inclusiveness policy.

Mr. Ankrah elucidated that participation by Brokerage firms on the Exchange will afford them the opportunity to increase their clientele in terms of access to aggregators, farmers, traders and processors, while ensuring trade facilitation that enables them to execute orders to buy or sell commodity contracts on behalf of clients, and charge a commission.

He also hinted that becoming a member also affords opportunity to own propriety rights of membership seats in the trading pit, which could increase in value over time and thereby make it possible for broking members to also trade on own their accounts to make profits. Mr. Ankrah also urged representatives of the Brokerage firms to consider investment opportunities in other areas of the GCX eco-system.

The sensitisation exercise also afforded the stockbrokers a platform to learn more about the regulatory and policy environment to ensure successful operations of the Exchange; the opportunities for auxiliary services in the transportation, logistics, haulage and warehousing continuum of the eco-system; technological infrastructure to be deployed; and protocols or policy on standards and grading of commodities to be traded among other concerns.

They indicated their willingness to participate in a similar sensitisation engagement on the Central Depository and Clearing and Settlement models of the GCX.