Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) announced it has opened a new electronic trading center, effective Monday 11 May 2020. The new electronic trading center is aimed at achieving social distancing measures to prevent the coronavirus pandemic, the Exchange said in a statement sent to 2Merkato.com.
The new electronic trading center is set up so it can entertain over 50 traders, but currently hosts a maximum of 40 traders.
In its statement, ECX recalled it has been implementing strong measures to ensure the safety of its employees and traders. The newly opened additional electronic trading center is a continuation of these measures.
The Exchange has noted it has adhered to safety measures decreed by the government since early on, such as the use of masks and other hygiene measures, and has put in place a working-in-shift mechanism for traders to access its services. The newly opened trading center now enables the traders to resume their daily trading, which is expected to enhance the trading capacity of ECX greatly. As a result, in the first day of the new center's operation alone, the statement related, commodities worth over 200 million birr have been traded.
Ethiopia has so far (by Wednesday 13 May, 2020) 263 confirmed cases of COVID-19, of which 108 have recovered, two have returned to their home countries, and five have died.
Source: ECX Press Release sent to 2Merkato.com
