LCFE presents Eko Gold Coin to Finance Minister
In pursuit of its goal to enlist government support for the Nigerian commodities ecosystem, Lagos Commodities and Futures Exchange (LCFE), has presented the Eko Gold Coin to the Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recently.
Electronic Receipts of the Eko Gold Coin was admitted for trading on LCFE in July last year when the Exchange was inaugurated by the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu. The visit to Ahmed, part of the scheduled sensitization efforts of LCFE in collaboration with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to showcase how the Federal Government can deploy commodities to grow the Nigerian economy.
Speaking during the presentation of the Eko Gold Coin, LCFE’s Managing Director, Mr Akin Akeredolu-Ale, explained that Nigeria was richly blessed with over 40 different minerals types spread in more than 450 deposits across the country.
According to him, LCFE was created to ensure that the Nigerian economy could access and harness the opportunities in the solid minerals and other asset classes in the commodities ecosystem to grow the economy.
He expressed appreciation to the Director General, SEC, Mr Lamido Yuguda for the Commission’s continued support to the Exchange and the growth of the Gold Sector, including approval of investible and fungible financial instruments for trading on the market.
” Nigeria is a commodities country but has a large potential that is untapped so far. We solicit for support of the National Assembly in passing the Investments and Securities Bill which will bring about development in the sector.. I thank SEC for pushing the Investments and Securities Bill because that is the legal and regulatory framework that is supposed to support the capital market and by default the commodities trading ecosystem.
“We are hoping that the Bill shall be approved so that we are able to have a hold on the commodities space and the revenues that are slipping out of Nigeria. We need that Bill passed to be able to function more effectively” he added. “, said Akeredolu-Ale.
The SEC’s Director General, Mr Yuguda, commended the Minister and the Federal Government on their determination to bequeath a vibrant commodities sector.
He stated that “LCFE has approval for the trading of a number of commodities and Gold is just one of them. He Commended the Exchange on the hard work done so far in the gold sector. “This gold is 100 per cent Nigerian gold, mined and refined in Nigeria and I am happy that we have your support in this. Thank you very much for making this possible, we appreciate all the guidance and support you have provided so far”. Yuguda said.
In response the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Ahmed expressed the commitment of the federal government to continue to improve the diversification of the economy by steadily growing other sectors, particularly the commodities trading ecosystem.
She noted the Eko Gold Coins, was one of the results of the Federal Government’s commitment towards diversification of the economy.
“This is really very pleasing for me because we have been trying to improve the diversification of the Nigerian economy. People say we need to diversify the economy, but the Nigerian economy is truly diversified. Our GDP today has 6.4 per cent contribution from the oil and gas sector, so 94.6 per cent of the Nigerian economy is from other sectors. One of the sectors that we have been trying to activate the full potentials is the mining sector.”, said Ahmed.
