Agriculture for Food and Jobs; AFEX for Food Security

Monday, August 10, 2020 / 9:10 AM /  Kainosedge Consulting for AFEX Commodities Exchange / Header Image Credit: AFEX Commodities Exchange

In the last week of July, AFEX was on ground in Katsina to launch the Agriculture for Food and Jobs Plan (AFJP) of the Federal Government targeted at mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on local food production. Our CEO, Ayodeji Balogun, who was present at the launch said that "With the realities of the pandemic testing our food systems, it is up to all players in the agricultural value chain to intervene in ways that are both sustainable and impactful. The Agriculture for Food and Jobs Plan provides structured production support by giving zero-interest input financing options to farmers, enabling them to access fertilizers and seeds for their production activities, which will result in increased yields at harvest time. The program will reach 2.4 million farmers, producing over 10 million Metric Tons, and providing food for 100 million households".

For the last 5 years, AFEX has worked in a consortium with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and other public and private sector partners including National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) and Sasakawa to build operational capacity to deliver improved financial inclusion, farmer training and access to finance and markets.

The programs run under this framework have improved the capacity of farmers across the country enabling year on year growth in yields and productivity that can be doubled down on in executing the Agriculture for Food and Jobs Plan. AFEX will be contributing 750,000 farmers to the AFJP program through this consortium of partners that include AGRA, NAERLS and Sasakawa.

Some exciting activities happened in July at the Exchange, and we're glad to share some of the highlights for you here:

• We shared some perspectives about the CBN's recently announced directive to discontinue the processing of Forms M for maize/corn importation into the country.
• We shared some handy infographics across our ComX pages of the highest prices that each commodity on the ComX spot board has hit this season.
• We had a great time on the second episode of the Xtra Conversation Series on Storyselling for Financial Products.

Xtra Special

ComX Promoter Certification Program

The first cohort of our ComX Promoter Certification Program went through four modules to prepare them to effectively guide their ComX communities and make the best of the platform. We had a great time at the virtual graduation ceremony for successful candidates, and we are set to welcome the second cohort soon.

Understanding ComX Product Classes

We got one of our Xperts to do some short videos explaining some of the product classes that are available to investors on ComX. You can get a brief understanding of spot commodities, input notes and exchange traded commodities by watching these videos, and telling us what more you would like to know.

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