Heritage Bank, LCFE launch $1tn investment opportunity window to tackle forex scarcity

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Heritage Bank, Ifie Sekibo, said the launch of Lagos Commodities and Future Exchange (LCFE) will unlock investment opportunities in Agriculture, Solid Minerals, Oil and Gas and Currencies.

LCFE was launched on Thursday, to diversify Nigeria’s economic growth away from oil, with the four asset classes offering $1 trillion (N445 trillion) market value that is expected to make the country a global competitive economy.

During the launch, Sekibo stated that the LCFE has the potential of unravelling new opportunities and wealth through unlocking long-term financing for the solid mineral and mining space.

He said Heritage Bank‘s partnership with LCFE would increase foreign liquidity to a projected $200 billion in FX repatriation thanks to expected investment in traded assets like Agriculture, Solid Minerals, Oil and Gas and Currencies.

Read also:Heritage Bank staff storm Andy Uba’s home to demand loans repayment(Video)

The CEO explained that this would help reduce the pressure on the exchange rate, as scarcity of the dollar has seen the United States currency rise to N718 per $1 in the capital market.

Speaking further on what the partnership means for the Nigerian economy, he said, “I believe that this is the beginning of how we are going to possibly create values in areas that hitherto we have taken for granted. First thing it will bring about is sustainable commodity trading ecosystem, being a catalyst for capital formation, unlocking the long-time financing for the solid mineral and mining space. A frontline push to diversify the economy of this country from oil.” he emphasized.

Sekibo stated further, “the Collaboration between Heritage Bank and LCFE is designed to align the market to transparent price discovery, standardised platform for trading of commodities across defined asset classes and straight through processing to settlement.”

Also addressing the impact of the LCFE, the MD/CEO of LCFE Akin Akeredolu-Ale, said, “As we are all aware, the Capital size of the Nigerian Commodities Ecosystem is so large and like I have said in the past, it can be considered as a $1 trillion economy cutting across Agriculture, Oil and Gas, Solid Minerals and Currency. With a capitalisation this large, it was important to lay the right foundation as the means determined the end for us and we could not afford, not to get it right.”

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