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Ethiopia: ECX Board of Directors Gets a New Chairperson

Sani Redi, Ethiopian Commodities Exchange’s (ECX) former board chairperson, is replaced by Yinager Dessie (PhD), governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE). ECX’s board of directors, which was formed recently, has a total of 11 members, of whom six are from government offices while the remaining five members represent the private sector.

The new board of directors includes Getahun Mekuria (PhD), minister of Innovation & Technology; Abdisa Yadeta, director general of the Federal Transport Authority; Haileyesus Bekele, president of the Development Bank of Ethiopia; and Abebe Abebayehu, an aide to the Prime Minister.

Abdela Bagerish, general manager of SA Bagarish, one of the leading coffee exporter companies, has also been re-elected to the board of directors, representing the business community.

The first of its kind in Ethiopia, ECX is a national multi-commodity exchange that provides low-cost, secure marketplace services to benefit all agricultural market stakeholders and invites industry professionals to seek membership enabling them to participate in trading.

ECX is established as a demutualized corporate entity with clear separation of Ownership, Membership, and Management. Thus, owners cannot have trading stake, members cannot have ownership stake, and the management can be neither drawn from the owners nor from the members.

ECX is designed as a public-private partnership enterprise, in a unique institutional innovation for Ethiopia. At its inception, ECX is promoted by the Government of Ethiopia. At the same time, ECX offers the sale of Membership seats, which are privately owned, permanently and freely transferable rights to the stream of earnings from trading on the Exchange.

As Owner, the Government of Ethiopia underwrites all performance risk of the Exchange related to the Exchange operated or appointed warehousing and grading of product, trading system, market information dissemination, and clearing and settlement. Members, for their part, are liable for contract performance on their own trades as well as of their Associates and Authorized Representatives.

The Management Board is composed of Owner representatives and five Member representatives.

Source: Addis Fortune and ECX’s Official Website