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LEAD Capital Consortium has emerged the preferred bidder for Advisory services on the Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) with a score of 83.1 percent having beaten PWC and United Capital Consortia which scored 61.4 percent and 58.3 percent to emerge second and third positions respectively.

At the close of the opening of the financial and technical proposals submitted by prospective advisers for NCX held by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) on Thursday, March 2, 2017, Lead Capital also submitted a financial bid of Seventy-Six Million, Three Hundred and Four Thousand, Five Hundred Naira (N76,304,500) only to emerge the preferred bidder. However, its emergence is subject to the approval of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) Steering Committee on the revitilisation of the NCX and the Chairman of the NCP, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.

Acting Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, Vincent Onome Akpotaire who was chairman of the occasion declared that the Federal Government’s desire to revamp the nation’s economy hinged on a well structured commodity exchange which is a catalyst for enhancing the effective and efficient marketing and distribution of agricultural and other commodities.

He noted that an efficient commodity exchange would serve as a good platform for trading in produce, encourage warehouse receipts systems as a veritable source of cash flows to farmers and other market dealers, thus allowing for competitive and more profitable trade and exchange as opposed to the current status under which off-takers enjoy the larger chunk of market profitability.

According to the Acting. DG, BPE, “it will further help in engendering grades and standards mechanism (assaying) that meet global best standards. Suffice to state that a well-structured and revitalised NCX operation will create job opportunities among the market participants like produce inspectors, private warehouse operators and logistics mangers among others”, he stated.

He said the current challenges posed by the near-absolute lull in the NCX could be overcome through a well-tailored restructuring and strategic investment programme as envisaged under the ongoing-national Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) investment programme.

He expressed the hope that the ultimate preferred adviser would add value to the on-going revitilisation efforts of the Federal Government and its development partners.

Earlier, the Sector Director and Coordinator of the Project Delivery Team, PDT, for the transaction, Mr. Yunana Jackdel Malo said that following the approval of the NCP steering on the revitalization of the NCX, the Secretariat transmitted letters of invitation and Request for Proposals, RFPs, to 13 firms which were randomly selected from the database of key stakeholder agencies of the government. He said the letters requested for Expressions of Interest, EOIs, technical and financial proposals which were to be sent simultaneously in separate sealed envelopes.

He said that at the expiration of the deadline for the submission of the EOIs, six firms responded which after evaluation, three of them; PWC Consortium with 79.0 percent, Lead Captial Consortium with 75.9 percent and UBA Consortium with 72.0 percent scaled the pass mark to qualify for the bids opening.

Also speaking, the Managing Director of the NCX Zaheera Baba-Ari praised the initiative to revatilise the Exchange, saying that it is a new dawn to move framers from subsistence to commercialised farming. She added that it would also give a boost to the agricultural sector as commissions would now be paid straight to into the Federal Government Treasury Single Account, TSA, and make agriculture an equal revenue earner as the Oil and Gas sector.

Stakeholders, including Labour; who spoke at the event, one after the other, praised the BPE for the transparency it is handling the transaction, saying its professional approach is second to none to other government agencies.

It would be recalled that the Federal Government through the Chairman of the NCP, Osinbajo (SAN) approved the strategic equity investment programme and an aggressive implementation process, midwifed by the NCP Steering Committee on the revitilisation of the NCX under the Chairmanship of the Minister of Industry, Trade & Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah.

Also present at the ceremony include representatives of the Ministers of Industry, Trade & Investment; Finance; Offices of DSS; EFCC; ICPC; and Civil Society Organisation, a statement by Alex Okoh, head, Public Communications, said.

—  Mar 7, 2017 @ 18:05 GMT

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