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AFEX Restates Commitment To Food Security in Nigeria

May 06, 2021   •   by   •   Source: Proshare   •   eye-icon 564 views

Thursday, May 05, 2021 / 03.00PM / Ottoabasi Abasiekong for WebTV/HeaderImage Credit: The Guardian Nigeria


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AFEX Commodities Exchange has restated its commitment tofood security in Nigeria, with a renewed focus on promoting responsibleconsumption and production, through the prevention of post-harvest loss as wellas a reduction in food wastage along the domestic production value chain.

 

The CEO of AFEX Nigeria Mr. Ayodeji Balogun disclosedthis at a forum it hosted to highlight its 5 years impact on the agriculturalcommodities sector of the economy.

 

According to Balogun while AFEX started in 2014, therewas the challenge of putting a face to the business. Over the years there havebeen several levels of successes, that have had a beneficial impact on thebusinesses of small-holder farmers.

 

The commodity expert said AFEX had focused on creatingthe infrastructure needed to drive value creation across the economy for allstakeholders.

 

Giving an overview of the impact report, Balogun saidthat AFEX was on a mission to create a system of sustainable change in thecommodities market, by creating a fair and efficient market for tradingcommodities.

 

Balogun said that the impact framework was to helpAfrica feed itself, solve the problem of poverty by helping small-scale farmersupscale businesses as well as make agriculture attractive to the youths whichin turn would solve the problem of unemployment in Africa.

 

Speaking further, the AFEX?óÔé¼Ôäós CEO explained that overthe years, the exchange had concerned itself with reaching out to farmers intheir farms and communities, helping to spread solutions for increased yieldsand productivity. He said that the scale of their programs had expanded with awarehouse infrastructure that was established in proximity to farmers. He addedthat farmers were grouped into cells and the cells were tied to warehouseswhich were 20/30km from the clusters for ease of access. This, he said, had enabledfarmers to access storage and structured markets in a more efficient manner.

 

To the farmers' credit, Balogun said that 45% of AFEXfarmers are food secured, which is three times more than the national baseline.Through their outreach structure, he noted that AFEX had deployed the inputfinancing programme successfully to over 40,00 farmers. He said this started asa partnership, which was facilitated by AFEX alongside microfinance banksproviding credit and world-class input and agronomy training.

 

In terms of gender equality, Balogun said that AFEXhad always been deliberate in the area of gender inclusion and equality.Ranging from its services specially crafted for women smallholder farmers tothe employment of women in its office and their representation in exclusiveroles.

 

Speaking on economic growth, he reported that AFEX hadcontributed to the SDG8 in terms of financial inclusion as well as the creationof products and processes that have made it easy for the capital market and thepublic to be part of the commodities ecosystem. He also added that AFEX aims togrow the value created by agriculture in absolute terms as well as per person.Agriculture and food according to Balogun should be a significant contributorto GDP.

 

As an aggregator in agriculture, Balogun explainedthat AFEX was focused on promoting responsible consumption and production,through the prevention of post-harvest losses and the reduction of foodwastage.

 


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