Nigerian Exchange to Boost Food Output With $100 Million Bond

(Bloomberg) --

Nigeria's AFEX Commodities Exchange Ltd. is raising as much as $100 million in 10-year debt this week to expand food production in Africa's most populous country. 

AFEX will invest the money raised on expanding storage capacity by at least 10% and financing farming on 250,000 hectares of land in six Nigerian cities of Kano, Kaduna, Oyo, Ogun, Cross River and Abuja, the nation's capital, Chief Operating Officer Akinyinka Akintunde said. “We will increase production of corn, rice and soy by at least three million tons yearly,” Akintunde said. 

Part of the proceeds will also go into launching four warehouses with 100,000 tons of storage capacity next month, with a plan to increase the store locations to at least 10 in the next two to three years. 

This will bring the facilities closer to farming communities and expand storage in the West African nation, which stores less than 5% of food produced, compared to South Africa that can keep as much as 80%, Akintunde said. “This is one of the key concerns for food security, because even if we produce enough food to feed the country, we won't have anywhere to store it,” he said.

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