Ecobank Transnational Inc. has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with commodity exchanges developer eleni LLC, with a view to establishing a co-operative framework to promote and accelerate the development of Africa’s agricultural sector
Albert Essien, Ecobank’s group chief executive, and Dr Eleni Gabre-Madhin, CEO of eleni, signed the MOU at an official ceremony held during the AfDB’s Annual General Meeting in Kigali.
The partnership between Ecobank and eleni will aim to realise a shared vision to transform Africa’s competitiveness in global commodity markets, enhancing value addition and processing in the domestic economy and enhancing food security. The partnership will look to build on the synergies between Ecobank’s unrivalled pan-African presence and its commitment to financial inclusion and eleni’s successful track record of creating and operating commodity exchanges in Africa, with projects in Ghana, Cameroon, Mozambique, and Nigeria. Ecobank recently announced that it was a keystone investor in the establishment of the Ghana Commodity Exchange, eleni’s first major foray in West Africa.
“As well as increasing market transparency and reducing transaction costs, commodity exchanges play a crucial role in the monitoring and assessment of risk,” commented Albert Essien, Ecobank’s Group CEO. “Instruments such as warehouse receipts reduce uncertainty and improve access to finance across the value chain. We look forward to collaborating further with eleni
to enhance Africa’s agricultural financing capabilities.”
“We are very excited to be working with one of Africa’s leading financial institutions, with a solid pan-African focus, as this opens up a tremendous opportunity to establish the leading platform for commodity-related payments and transactions across the continent,” concluded Dr Eleni Gabre-Madhin.
