By Dipo Olowookere
Acting Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Dr Vincent Akpotaire, has announced Lead Capital Consortium as the preferred bidder for the acquisition of equities of the Nigeria Commodity Exchange market.
Lead Capital beat its closest rivals, PWC Consortium and United Capital Consortium to grab the acquisition.
Announcing winner of the bid last Thursday in Abuja, Dr Akpotaire said Lead Capital, which scored 83.1 percent, was chosen of its intimidating technical and financial scores.
The BPE boss further said that it was important that equities of the Exchange were transferred to a vibrant organisation.
According to him, the transfer of the equities would ensure adequate loans were made available to farmers through the Exchange to reposition the nation’s economy.
He also disclosed that, “The Federal Government is desirous of revamping the nation’s economy through non-oil export.
“It is instructive to state that the much desired economy revamp strongly hinges on a well-structured commodity exchange, as a catalyst for enhancing the effective and efficient marketing and distribution of agricultural commodities and other produce.
“It is also noteworthy that an effective commodity exchange will serve as good platform for trading in produce, encourage warehouse receipts system and a tested a veritable source of cash flows to farmers and other market dealers.”
Lead Capital’s financial bid was N76.3 million, while that of PwC was N372.3 million and United Capital 289.8 million.
Adedapo Adesanya