Private-sector Commodities exchange firm, AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited, invited some journalists for a training session to introduce the market to its EdEx initiative. Dubbed “Trading stories”, the company intends to use the initiative to unlock a plethora of wealth-creation opportunities that were hitherto known to a small number of players in the space.
EdEx is AFEX’s answer to the knowledge gap in commodities trading. By providing ample knowledge about the ins and outs of trading and investing, it is expected that a positive trajectory of new entrants into the area of commodities will follow in the coming months and years.
With conventional wisdom stating that easier access to learning material translates to increased assimilation, AFEX has committed to providing online training, digitally distributed materials, and brick and mortar workshops.
Three groups of participants have been highlighted for potentially benefiting the most from the EdEx platform: Smallholder farmers, Brokers, and Institutional investors. Per AFEX Country Manager Ayodeji Balogun, the platform will benefit a lot more:
“EdEX is a market education platform designed to help portfolio managers, fund managers, analysts, traders, brokers and risk managers gain an understanding of the commodities markets in Nigeria, and develop products and services around the commodities exchange ecosystem.”
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Content on the platform spans across membership procedures, market access, trading strategies, and community engagement. For smallholder farmers, a train-the-trainer model aimed at effective and efficient knowledge dissemination on various farm processes and beneficial practices is available.
The training workshop with journalists is a prelude to the launch of the platform in the third quarter of the year. AFEX intends for EdEx to grow into an open-source library for exchanges in Africa.
About AFEX: AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited (AFEX Nigeria) is Nigeria’s first private sector commodity exchange firm. The company was established in 2014 under the aegis of Africa Exchange Holdings Ltd., a limited liability company with principal investors – Berggruen Holdings, LLC, Heirs Holdings, LLC, and 50 Ventures, LLC.
Since inception, AFEX Nigeria has made great strides in reaching smallholder farmers and providing solutions for problems in the country’s agricultural sector through such services as the deployment of storage services, the provision of electronic warehouse receipts, and the facilitation of input financing.
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AFEX Nigeria has since reached and enhanced the livelihoods of over 100, 000 farmers and aggregated over 100, 000 metric tons of grain with the organization’s overarching strategy of creating a national trading platform and supply chain network in carefully identified value chains through which farmers and commodity merchants can access commodity and financial markets.
