The Zimbabwe Mercantile Exchange (ZMX) has become a pioneer member of the General Assembly of the Association of African Commodities Exchanges (A-ACX) which seeks to establish a framework for the operationalisation of intra-continental commodities trading under the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfFCFTA) protocol.
The AfFCFTA, with support from the World Food Program (WFP) and in collaboration with the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX), convened a meeting of Heads of African Commodities Exchanges and associated entities in Accra, Ghana recently.
ZMX, along 15 other African Commodity Exchanges participated in the Forum where CEO, Collen Tapfumaneyi, was appointed to the Steering Committee of the Association of Commodity Exchanges (A-ACX) set up to facilitate the immediate commencement of activities of A-ACX.
The Steering Committee is comprised of CEOs from five of the member commodity exchanges. Other members of the committee are drawn from Ghana; Nigeria; Ivory Coast and Tanzania commodity exchanges.
The A-ACX has adopted several key next steps, including active participation in the Intra-Africa Trade Fair, 2023 in Cairo, Egypt where the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will take place to formalise the AfCFTA Association of Commodity Exchanges under AfCFTA’s Guided Trade Initiative. The A-ACX will engage stakeholders in their respective countries to share essential insights into the technicalities of intra-continental commodity trading; settlement and logistics modalities.
The establishment of the A-ACX is a significant milestone in promoting intra-African trade in commodities and related services. Aligned with the objectives of AfCFTA, the A-ACX aims to facilitate increased trade across all sectors of Africa’s economy, fostering economic growth for the continent.
The AfCFTA is one of the flagship projects of ‘Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want’. It is a highly promising trade agreement, with a comprehensive scope that includes critical areas of Africa’s economy.
By eliminating barriers to trade in Africa, the objective of AfCFTA is to significantly boost intra-Africa trade, particularly trade in value-added production and trade across all sectors of Africa’s economy.
ZMX operates an Electronic Warehouse Receipt System and a Commodities Trading Platform that ensures safe, secure and convenient trading and financing of commodities.