A few key members of the investment community in Abuja were hosted to a meetup by AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited (AFEX) on December 12, 2019. The meetup was a one of a kind opportunity for the investment community to dialogue with the private sector commodities exchange, which has built a vital supply chain infrastructure to enable the securitization of agricultural products.

Unveiled at the meetup was AFEX’s new order management system – ComX – a platform that eases the entry and exposure of investors into the commodities market in Nigeria. Commodities are a vital alternative investment class through which the investing public can diversify their portfolios and hedge against risk. ComX outfits investors with a simple interface that makes investment in this alternative asset class accessible and transparent.

Ahead of the official launch of the platform in January 2020, the Abuja investment community was given an opportunity to interact with the company as it explained its business model and introduced the new platform and the transaction dynamics around it.

AFEX’s Business Development Manager, Akinyinka Akintunde, who led the conversations at the meetup, delved into the activities of AFEX over its five years of existence. He hedged on the company’s success in surmounting key infrastructural challenges, maximizing value for commodity producers and buyers, and then highlighted the team’s readiness to introduce this key technology solution that integrates agriculture-based securities with the capital market and opens up the market to retail and institutional investors.

Is'haq Mallam Yahaya, the North Central Chairman of the Commodity Brokers Association of Nigeria (CBAN), who was in attendance at the event, described it as an introduction to a new market that brings commodities into a capital or money market environment, enabling ease of transactions and eliminating concerns around storage and other commodity associated costs. According to him, with ComX, “Directly or indirectly, the broker is going to have some money, the Exchange is going to have some money, and the government is going to have some money. It will make jobs available and a lot of people happy.”

Dahiru Usman, the Chief Operating Officer of DSU Brokerage said that the meetup was necessary for the market. According to him, “With more understanding of the products and instruments in the commodities space, the bigger the market will be, and the more innovative the kind of products that will be created in the future.”

The meetup concluded with AFEX sharing plans for future engagements with the capital market, which will give investors ample opportunity to take advantage of the innovative platform and truly make investing in commodities a painless and simple endeavor.

See Also: AFEX Introduces Market Education Platform – EdEX