Kumasi, Sept 14, GNA - Mr Alexis Aning, a Financial and Management Consultant, has called for amendment of the Securities Industry Law to bring the industry within the ambit of the law in terms of pivotal institutions, intermediaries and products.

He said there was the need for the law to be amended so that the definitions of "securities" would include securitised warehouse receipts, commodity sellbacks and commodity backed warrants. Mr Aning was speaking at a roundtable discussion on Commodity Clearing House and Commodity Exchange in Ghana organised by the Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF) in Kumasi on Tuesday.

Mr Aning said the law would have to empower Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to prescribe minimum requirements for standards, practices and policies for new institutions and intermediaries including the Ghana Commodities Exchange. He said a commodity backed warrant scheme as a start of the Ghana Commodity Exchange would not only serve as a basis of developing trade in commodity derivatives but would also contribute to promotion of agriculture.

It will lead to build up of agricultural stocks, a basis for food security policy and enhance government's budgetary cash management. "It would deepen the money market and provide intermediation mechanism for traders in globally-traded commodities to tap into available price risk insurance schemes."

Touching on exchanges in Africa, the consultant said a Pan-African Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (PACDEX) trading agricultural products, metals, energy and curries is in the process of establishment. He said a hub in Botswana would link together local exchange platforms as well as warehouses in various countries.

Dr Dan Inkoom, lecturer, Department of Planning at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), said the commodity exchange would assist in poverty reduction, especially for farmers, because it would guarantee them stable prices for their commodities. Mr Louis Assomaning Bimpong, Manager of the Business Department of PEF, urged stakeholders to take advantage of the programmes that PEF had been organising on private sector development.