A DONE DEAL

The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX), the brainchild of Eleni Gabre-Medhin (PhD), an economist, has seen another milestone in its seven-year history. This breakthrough came with the shift from the popular pit-trading, often called open-cry-out system, to an electronic trading platform, dubbed eTRADE. It took the exchange over two years to realise the new platform, supported with financing from the Investment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF). The inauguration of the platform saw the presence of political heavyweights, such as, Debretsion Gebremichael (PhD), coordinator of the economic cluster with a prime ministerial portfolio and minister of Communications & Information Technology (front right) and, Addisalem Balema (PhD), director general of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange Authority (front left), a regulator. The move means a lot to the exchange and its second CEO Ermias Eshetu (back left), as it will reduce cost, bring about economies of scale and pave the road to better integration with the international market. It is also a step closer to integrated futures trading, which has been in the plans of the exchange for years, but considered synonymous to “gambling” by the political core. It looks like the platform is fit for purpose with a trading volume of 2,390Mt, valuing at 120 million Br, traded on it since its commissioning on July 20, 2015. No wonder Debretsion and Addisalem look so pleased.