The Ghana Commodity Exchange Project (GCX) has held its second bi-monthly consultative meeting with its key stakeholders following the inaugural meeting held in November, 2015.

The consultative session, known as the Market Council meeting, is a platform for the GCX Project secretariat to solicit feedback from council members on various outputs of the Project, which is in its implementation phase.

The consultative session which deliberated on concerns that bordered on trading related considerations, market surveillance and other key issues critical to the successful execution of the Project, brought together all members including key producers, aggregators, traders, wholesalers, processors and other stakeholder groups who interact with market actors in the value chain process of the commodity market.

In his opening remarks at the second Market Council session, the Acting GCX Project Director Mr. Robert Dowuona Owoo indicated Ghana is still on course to deliver the first commodity exchange in the West African sub-region, and is well-placed to lead the re-writing of Africa’s economic renaissance narrative -- which is to create wealth through transformation of the agricultural sector.

He commended the Market Council members for their level of commitment so far demonstrated toward establishing the first Commodity Exchange in West Africa, which promises a bright secure future to market actors in Ghana’s agricultural value chain; especially smallholder farmers.

On behalf of the Chairman of the Project Steering Committee of the GCX, Mr. Joe Tackie, Mr. Owoo rallied stakeholders support for the Project team to work toward creating an orderly organised path that will enhance market efficiency, transparency and integrity through the dissemination of market information in real-time to all market players.

Launched in June 2015 by President John Mahama, the GCX Project is a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) initiative aimed at transforming Ghana’s agricultural sector by establishing the first modern commodity exchange in the country.

The GCX Project is being financed with equity investment by the government of Ghana under sponsorship from the Ministry of Trade and Industry and a private sector financing consortium made up of domestic and global institutional investors.