In the past week, AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited (AFEX) started up conversations about the potential of cocoa as the future for export markets in Nigeria juxtaposing the insights on the opportunities to be harnessed in the cocoa value chain against the grim realities of a crude-oil dependent future.

In its lineup of necessary issues to be discussed around agriculture and food security for the 2019 Agribusiness and Food Security Summit held on the 18th of July 2019 in Lagos, Nigeria, BusinessDay hosted a panel session on ‘Risk Management Approaches and Solutions in Agricultural Finance and Trading.’

The first image that usually comes to mind when you think of an exchange is a group of brokers standing in a large circle in their suits and shouting commands at each other. If you have ever visited an exchange or seen “The Wolf of Wall Street”, you have probably wondered what all the fuss was about.

AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited, Nigeria’s first private sector commodities exchange firm, is today introducing the first ever learning platform for Nigeria’s commodities market. The Exchange has named this initiative EdEX and kicked off activities under the new initiative with a training for journalists and media personnel tagged Trading Stories.

Increased access to finance for smallholder farmers in Nigeria will drive productivity in crop production and the Agric sector in general across the country.

In 2017, africanfertilizer.org released a report showing a rise in the percentage of Nigerian farmers uptaking fertilizers. With a rise of 63% from the 959,364 metric tons of fertilizer accessed in 2016, Nigerian farmers were now recorded to have accessed 1,564,816 metric tons.

A total of 7,183 MT of commodities ranging from maize, paddy rice and sorghum valued at N773.1m was traded at the AFEX exchange in Q1, 2019.

AFEX - Nigeria’s first private commodities exchange firm and leading player in the Sub-Saharan African Commodities value-chain in partnership with Proshare - Nigeria’s leading financial information hub, is set to hold an interactive twitter chat on April 17th, 2019.

AFEX defines a commodities exchange to be “an open and regulated market where people can trade in standardized futures contracts. This means, in simple terms, that they get into agreements to buy or sell specific quantities of raw materials or other primary products at a specific price for delivery on a future (specified) date.”

As in every relevant sphere of life, it is true that women in agriculture are important – wielding the capacity to make great impact when they are helped and empowered to access the same opportunities as men. At the launch of the National Gender Action Plan (NGAP) on Agriculture in October 2018.

When AFEX met Abdul in 2017, he was operating barely a rung above subsistence farmers. Where his aim was to make a living from his farming operations, he was stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty that kept his farming operations small with no real opportunity to expand and increase. As we identified, his problem was both simple and complex.

In part fulfillment of imperatives under this partnership, Proshare has developed the AFEX dedicated page within its platform to present news, data and analysis regarding the Commodities market from a single source.

After all the reflection and measurements that come with a year ending and a new year beginning, we at AFEX Nigeria are feeling re-energized to continue pursuing some long held goals that our business was set up to attain as well as some others that have joined our lineup of impact as we have grown as an organization.

There are many benefits for individuals and nation states in having a well-established and efficient commodities exchange.

Access to finance in Agriculture has always remained critical to the success of farm businesses whether in production, improving post-harvest practices or in household cash flow. It is needed to get better access to markets which in turn promotes better management of risks. It also plays an important role in climate adaptation and resilience of agriculture to climate change, thus contributing to longer term food security.