The Abuja Securities and Commodity Exchange (ASCE) is to start operations on 25 July 2006.. It follows many years of postponements and false starts.
According to a spokesman for Standard Bank in Nigeria, the corporate affairs manager of the exchange has confirmed that ASCE will start with a cash segment only, with futures trading to follow, but the exchange will eventually trade both securities and commodities.
“ASCE, which was initially established as a stock exchange, took off in 1999,” says the Standard Bank spokesman. “However, in 2001, the Federal Government converted it into a security and commodity exchange and it had to close shop to members of the public as its facilities were not configured to trade on commodities.”