A delegation of the Securities & Exchange Commission, SEC, led by its Director General, Arunma Oteh, last week paid a visit to the East Africa Exchange (EAX) during the 49th annual general meeting of the African Development Bank(AfDB), in Kigali, Rwanda.
Oteh’s visit was to acquaint her group with the Exchange’s operations as well as witness the progress the Exchange has made since it began operations in 2013.
Along with Oteh was Samuel Nwanze, a board member of the Exchange and Finance Director of Heirs Holdings, the proprietary investment company owned by Tony Elumelu, one of the Exchange’s key partners, as well as Christopher Marks, former Global Head of Debt Capital, BNP ParibasBank (France).
The CEO of the East Africa Exchange, Paul Kukubo who briefed the delegation on the Exchange’s current activities in Rwanda and expansion strategies for the East African region, explained that the Exchange’s regional focus and launching of new offices in Kenya and Uganda.
Kukubo also explained that the Rwandan government has recently made available thirteen warehouses located in several grain production sites of the country in support of farmer cooperative groups.
Among others, Kukubo said the Exchange will support farmers to address post-harvest losses through better storage and collateral management, adding that the Exchange has signed up Collateral Management International, a highly reputable collateral manager worldwide to support the farmers in addressing post-harvest losses and improve farmer’s income.
The Exchange will also provide the farmers access to finance, linking them to banks through its electronic warehouse receipts program, as well as providing a trading platform for the farmers to trade their product.
An electronic warehouse receipt represents commodities stored in an exchange-accredited warehouse with specific quality, quantity, ownership, and reference location stated on the receipt. The integrity of the receipt is guaranteed by a collateral manager who maintains the quality and quantity of stored commodities.
Oteh congratulated EAX for their initiatives to support smallholder farmers to reduce post-harvest losses and improve their income as well as progress in linking commodity markets across the East African Community area, and promoting cross border trade across the region.
She stressed that Nigeria has a similar effort and the two counties can share common experiences.
The EAX Trading Manager Aurore Mimosa Munyangaju demonstrated the use of the NASDAQ trading platform, and explained that so far, over 200 users including farmers have been trained and used the platform for trading since the Exchange operations commenced.
The East Africa Exchange is a regional commodity exchange established to link smallholder farmers to agricultural and financial markets, to secure competitive prices for their products, and to facilitate access to financial opportunities.
EAX’s goal is to facilitate trade across all five East African Community member states and it is wholly owned by Africa Exchange Holdings, Ltd. (AFEX) which was founded in 2012 by three principal investors: Tony Elumelu, Nicolas Berggruen, and Jendayi Frazer, as Managing Partner.
AFEX established two subsidiaries, East Africa Exchange (EAX) and AFEX Nigeria to serve as catalysts in the development of Africa’s agricultural potential and financial markets.
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