Posed with a question of the current prices of maize and other commodities in the market, Zaheera Baba-Ari, the Managing Director of the Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX), could not provide answers before a Senate Committee on trade and investment.
The Federal agency offers a continuous and fair market price for buyers and sellers of essential commodities. Mrs Baba-Ari recently appeared before the Senate to defend the agency’s budget for 2021. POLITICS NIGERIA obtained a video clip of the meeting.
At the meeting, Tolulope Adebiyi, the Senator representing Ogun West Senatorial District asked her about the current price of maize since the agency runs an online platform with prices of commodity on it.
The Ogun Senator said: “If I ask you what maize is selling for at the moment, what would you tell me?”
“I don’t really know. It’s on a daily basis,” Mrs Baba-Ari responded.
Even when Mr Adebiyi insisted that Mrs Baba-Ari give him a price range, the managing director, who was confused and whispering to those beside her for an answer, said; “It is a daily thing.”
When the Senator asked about the price of Soya in the market, Mrs Baba-Ari said she does not want to guess.
“I normally get such data on a weekly basis from the local market,” she defended.
The Senator, furious at the ignorance of Mrs Baba-Ari, said the action connotes incompetence.
“You as the MD of the company that operates the commodity exchange must be informed and have an idea of what Commodities are going. You must have an idea. You may not have the exact price but…”
“This shows how much interest you have is what you’re doing. It’s not about the administrative functions of the Exchange alone. You have to be informed about work because how do you… I mean, how do you interact with comes up to you? And that kind of thing must have an idea.”
“And I think that’s a kind of thing that does not exude confidence, you know when they were asking for more funding, more money, people are looking for competence.This one that you are asking your director, asking this and that or trying to look at these on the internet…, Mr Adebiyi lamented.
According to Mrs Baba-Ari’s profile, she has had extensive training and firsthand experience on the operations of a Commodity Exchange in Asia, the far East, South America, North America and Europe.
