AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited (AFEX), Nigeria’s first private sector commodities exchange firm, joined the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to Ring the Bell for Financial Literacy at an event held at the Exchange office on the 3rd of November 2020. The event which saw the attendance of the Executive Commissioner (Operations), SEC, Mr. Dayo Obisan, represented by Mr Emomotimi Agama alongside members of SEC’s Market Infrastructure and Innovation Department allowed AFEX to reiterate its commitment to driving initiatives that promote investor education and protection, which is a key focus of the Commission.

Financially literate market participants are better enabled to take advantage of new opportunities in the capital market and drive up the level of activities and diversity in the market. As a commodities exchange, AFEX has worked on furnishing the need for information about the commodities market and the commodities trading landscape in Nigeria, allowing for greater participation by an increasing number of retail and institutional investors in the market. The Exchange has designed and executed a robust education campaign that includes both online trainings and digitally distributed learning materials, enabling AFEX to reach various audience groups and satisfy their unique education needs.

Ayodeji Balogun, the CEO of AFEX, speaking at the event said “Our vision is to grow our education campaigns into an open-source library of content for commodity exchanges in Africa. The content will span across membership procedure, market access, trading strategies, and community engagement, and will be accessible to investors at the click of a button. We are glad about and align so strongly with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s focus on investor protection and education, and ring the bell for financial literacy.”

The Head, Registration, Exchanges, Market Infrastructure and Innovation, at SEC, Emomotimi Agama said, “We aim to facilitate the dissemination of information about Nigeria’s capital market that provides investors with the critical knowledge required to make better decisions about investing in the market. We are happy that together with key stakeholders like AFEX we can facilitate this movement of financial literacy”.

Initiatives like knowledge-sharing sessions, video tutorials, one-on-one with financial experts and detailed reports on commodity value chains are being incorporated into AFEX’s technological platforms to access important trading data, trends, and financial information, thereby bringing support and growth to the commodities market.

Financial literacy on the intricacies of how commodities market work is one of the key ingredients to de-risking the sector, building trust, and growing markets for a sustainable food system. The holistic approach AFEX and SEC are taking to ensure a viable commodities ecosystem will not only help to understand the advantages of commodities as an alternative investment option but also grow people’s trust in the system and between key players in the value chain. Additionally, this synergy will create unprecedented opportunities for investors and farmers to access financial growth. AFEX alignment with SEC will bring millennials and Generation Z to the commodities exchange ecosystem as future operators, protecting them against price volatility/inflation and help diversify their portfolio as investors.

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