AFEX Tops Agriculture, Commodities List in FT’s Ranking of African Companies

Emma Okonji

AFEX, Nigeria’s commodities market player and the country’s first private sector commodities exchange, has been listed on the Financial Times (FT) ranking of Africa’s Fastest-Growing Companies in Agriculture Commodities category 2022. 

Despite the challenging business conditions, the company topped the list by demonstrating its revenue growth.

AFEX added over 350,000 digital farmers to their WorkBench platform and announced the first Asset-Backed Commercial Paper listed on a Commodities Exchange in Africa. 

The FT’s Africa Fastest Growing Companies list comprises innovative, modern and fast-growing companies that are the driving force of the international economy in the 21st century. Only 75 companies were  featured on the list from thousands of entrants.

In collaboration with Statista, the FT ranks companies that had the strongest revenue growth in Africa between 2017 and 2020. AFEX also came in first place in the list of fastest-growing companies in Nigeria and third place in the overall list of fastest-growing companies in Africa.

AFEX has supported farmers across major grain growing states in the country. The company has over 126 warehouses in Nigeria, and Kenya, with a storage capacity of 120,000MT.

CEO at AFEX, Ayodeji Balogun, said: “We are delighted to have come top of the FT’s Africa’s fastest-growing Agriculture and Commodities list. It is a significant accomplishment and recognises the work we have been doing over the past eight years.

“Although the global pandemic has proved challenging over the past two years, we’ve worked extremely hard to improve Africa’s commodity market. Innovations such as our Electronic Warehouse Receipts System (e-WRS) use blockchain technology to help farmers access credit safely. 

“Widening access and creating a more inclusive and profitable ecosystem that works for everyone, fuels our ambition to expand into new markets. We have recently expanded to Kenya, and will scale up further with an imminent launch in Côte D’Ivoire. This is fantastic and keeps us on track with our core mission of helping Africa feed herself and providing employment for farmers.” 

Since its launch in 2014, AFEX has committed to levelling-up Africa’s agro-tech sector. By bridging the gap between Agro-processors and investors, AFEX boosts food security and makes food production more efficient. AFEX has financed over 350,00 farmers in eight years and fed 4,000,000 households.