This year was a big year for AFEX – for our entities, our products, and services, our Xperts, and our clients. We started the year strong with more regional expansion, and that was only the beginning. As we roundup this December, we have reached a broad network of 494,972 farmers, across 3 African countries and facilitated 1.5M MT volumes of trade leveraging our storage footprint of 399 warehouses with a storage capacity of over 380, 000 MT.

Over the past 12 months, we have focused on building the needed infrastructure to deliver our next five-year strategy and drive inclusive trade and economic prosperity for Africans. We made significant investments while evolving our platforms. We launched innovative products and impact-driven projects. We deepened our partnerships, and we won a few awards along the way.

It was a year of growth for us. With 2024 underway, we’re ready to level up even harder! but It’s quite fun to look back and review some of the significant ways we transformed in 2023:

African Expansion to Uganda

The vision from day one was food security in Africa, and to do that our solution has to go beyond borders, so at the start of the year, we expanded into our second East African country, Uganda. This extended our solutions in aggregation, storage, and financial inclusion to Ugandan farmers and processors. We aim for a continent where farmers have more market access, better livelihoods, and ultimately, promote food security. 11 months in and we remain bullish as ever, reaching over 2,000 Ugandan farmers.

First Private-owned company to receive WRS License in Kenya

Earlier in the year, we became the first private-owned company to receive the Warehouse Certificate license in Kenya. With 17 warehouses spread across two counties in Kenya, AFEX has registered over 11,000 farmers and traded over 11,000 MT of Maize. We firmly believe that storage can reduce food losses, stabilize supply, and improve farmer livelihoods.

FT Ranking as #1 Africa’s fastest-growing company

We made history this year. We were humbled by the recognition that our approach works.

In May, we ranked first on the Financial Times’ list of the Fastest Growing Companies in Africa. When we set out with a mission to champion efficient trade across Africa through the commodities market, we were determined to become the solution our clients could trust, and with all that we accomplished since 2014, we are proud of how far we've come.

Listing of AFEX 100 billion Naira 3-year Asset-Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP) Programme.

In Q3 2023, we announced the listing of AFEX Investment Limited SPV 100 billion Naira 3-year Asset-Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP) Programme on the Exchange, to provide affordable financing solutions to agro-processors in Nigeria. The ABCP happens to be the first-ever commodities-backed ABCP listed on an Exchange in Nigeria. Through this product, we are prioritizing impact-focused investment that allows agri-businesses to unlock working capital for their needs.

British International Investment (BII) $26.5 Million Investment

A particularly memorable event for us this year was this strategic partnership with the British International Investment (BII), UK’s Development Finance Institution (DFI), and Impact Investor. We successfully raised $26.5 million in funding from BII. This investment will be used to build 20 modern warehouses in strategic locations in Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda, as well as scale warehouse technology, and next-generation software that captures post-harvest pricing.

Launch of AFEX Bar Raiser Academy

Throughout 2023, we worked closely with young, brilliant, and passionate graduates across Africa to develop their skills and talents in the commodities ecosystem and help them land as softly as possible in today’s competitive job market. We welcomed the third 3rd cohort of the AFEX Bar Raiser Program and AFEX Tech stars and further launched a training academy, where bar raisers go through an intensive 3-month training before being accepted into the graduate trainee program.

With over 40 recruits, the aim for us is to essentially increase the talent pipeline, not in terms of quantity but the quality of the people who join the organization every year. Through this, we are driving greater levels of collaboration, productivity, and innovation among African youths.

AFEX One Million Cocoa Trees Planting Initiative

At AFEX, sustainability is always front and center. Last year, we launched the One Million Cocoa Tree Planting Initiative across cocoa-planting regions in Nigeria. We’re happy to announce the completion of the first and second phases of the Initiative, distributing 700,000 high-quality cocoa seedlings to farmers and helping them achieve remarkable results on their farms.

Click here to watch the documentary, learn more about the techniques that made this ambitious project possible, and see how it transformed the livelihoods of farmers and rural communities.

First Pan-African Ag-Hackathon for Code Cash Crop

And then there was #CodeCashCrop 4.0.

We started Code Cash Crop in 2018 to spearhead conversations at the intersection of technology, finance, and agriculture. For the fourth edition themed “scaling market-led solutions”, we introduced a Pan-African ag-hackathon and invited applications from Nigeria and Kenya to solve problems related to Data, Logistics, and Extension in the ag sector and we were impressed at the quality of the solutions presented at the event.

We will continue to inspire more innovation and collaboration among African youths in the ag sector and contribute to its growth and development through this platform.

Our platforms had a makeover

We’re constantly collecting insight into ways to strengthen our platform. In October, we doubled down on our commitment to building the digital infrastructure needed to facilitate trade across Africa and allow more investors to participate in the market. We moved our corporate website to afex. africa and our trading platform, ComX, to africaexchange.com.

We took an even fresher look at the new trading platform, Africa Exchange, to make it more interactive and dynamic for users. Now users can enjoy new features, a better experience, and more insights on the commodities market in Africa.

CEO Breakfast Launch

As an Exchange, we are championing a new economic renaissance through our investments aimed to drive innovation and propel the growth of the Nigerian economy and we are glad the inaugural CEO breakfast was a grand success. We are excited to interact and collaborate more in the future and create positive change for Nigeria’s economy and society.

As we wrap up the year, we want to say a big thank you for joining us on our incredible journey in 2023. While we are proud of our progress so far, we recognize there’s more to do to ensure we keep building a sustainable, inclusive, and efficient market system for commodities.

We look forward to another incredible year – for our company, our products, and services, our Xperts, and for you.