STORY: Ghana mulls listing cocoa on national commodities exchange to increase value 
SHOOTING TIME: April 17, 2024
DATELINE: April 19, 2024
LENGTH: 00:03:44
LOCATION: Accra
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of Black Star Square
2. various of cocoa farm 
3. various of symposium in Accra
4. SOUNDBITE (English): SETUTSI IVOWI, Chief executive officer of GCX
5. various of cocoa farm
6. various of Ghana Commodity Exchange

STORYLINE:

Ghana, the world's second-largest cocoa producer, plans to list cocoa on the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) to boost the value of the product and drive up prices, an official has said.

Setutsi Ivowi, chief executive officer of the GCX, said during a one-day symposium Wednesday in the capital of Accra that cocoa, the country's leading export cash crop, would be listed on the exchange to deepen the confidence of traders and stakeholders.

SOUNDBITE (English): SETUTSI IVOWI, Chief executive officer of GCX
"We have a national commodity exchange, and cocoa is one of our national products, the biggest export, so there's no way we can establish the national cocoa exchange and not trade cocoa, so I think it is going to take some time. We see that, but ultimately, cocoa as a flagship commodity of Ghana should be traded, as should gold and other flagship commodities."

To facilitate the process, Ivowi said, the GCX has been holding discussions with the Ghana Cocoa Board, the regulator of the cocoa industry in Ghana, and the International Cocoa Organization (ICO) to support the initiative.

The discussions with the ICO also included supporting the continent to establish an African cocoa exchange or supporting African countries with commodity exchanges to trade cocoa, she said.

Ghana established the GCX in 2018 and has since traded agriculture commodities including maize, millet, rice, sorghum, sesame, and soybean on spot contracts.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Accra.
(XHTV)