The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) is a new initiative for Ethiopia and the first of its kind in Africa. The vision of ECX is to revolutionize Ethiopia’s tradition bound agriculture through creating a new marketplace that serves all market actors, from farmers to traders to processors to exporters to consumers. The ECX is a unique partnership of market actors, the Members of the Exchange, and its main promoter, the Government of Ethiopia. ECX represents the future of Ethiopia, bringing integrity, security, and efficiency to the market. ECX creates opportunities for unparalleled growth in the commodity sector and linked industries, such as transport and logistics, banking and financial services, and others.

ECX assures all commodity market players the security they need in the market through providing a secure and reliable End-to-End system for handling, grading, and storing commodities, matching offers and bids for commodity transactions, and a risk-free payment and goods delivery system to settle transactions, while serving all fairly and efficiently.

ECX creates trust and transparency through aggressive market data dissemination to all market actors, through clearly defined rules of trading, warehousing, payments and delivery and business conduct, and through an internal dispute settlement mechanism. ECX provides market integrity at three important levels: the integrity of the product itself, the integrity of the transaction, and the integrity of the market actors.

The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) commenced trading operations in April 2008. ECX has invited membership of the agricultural and trade industry.

The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange was started to benefit and modernize the way Ethiopia was trading it’s most valuable assets, it’s commodities. Ethiopia needed a change from the traditional means of trading to better support the needs of all those involved in the trading and production.

Before ECX was established agricultural markets in Ethiopia had been characterized by high costs and high risks of transacting, forcing much of Ethiopia into global isolation. With only one third of output reaching the market, commodity buyers and sellers tended to trade only with those they knew, to avoid the risk of being cheated or default. Trade is done on the basis of visual inspection because there was no assurance of product quality or quantity, this drove up market costs, leading to high consumer prices. For their part, small-scale farmers, who produce 95 percent of Ethiopia’s output, came to market with little information and are at the mercy of merchants in the nearest and only market they know, unable to negotiate better prices or reduce their market risk.

ECX is developing a new method of exchange and a safer one for all who trade on it.

A marketing system that coordinates better, that links faster, and that protects the interests of both sides of the trade. It is time for a marketing system that is transparent, efficient, and innovative, that will take Ethiopian agriculture into the new Millennium. Ethiopia, once a commercial trading hub in antiquity linking markets of East and West, can again claim a place in the global market arena.

The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange, (ECX), is a marketplace, where buyers and sellers come together to trade, assured of quality, delivery and payment. The vision of ECX is to transform the Ethiopian economy by becoming a global commodity market of choice. ECX’s mission is to connect all buyers and sellers in an efficient, reliable, and transparent market by harnessing innovation and technology, and based on continuous learning, fairness, and commitment to excellence. 

Mission and Vision

Our Vision: Is to transform the Ethiopian economy by becoming global commodity market by choice.

Our Mission: Is to connect all buyers and sellers in an efficient, reliable, and transparent market by harnessing innovation and technology and based on continuous learning, fairness, and commitment to excellence.

As CEO of the ECX, Anteneh Assefa has been responsible for the overall management of the Exchange since November 1, 2012. He has a close to fifteen years of experience in banking industry. Prior experiences include, Vice President of Operations and Strategic Planning for five and half years at the Bank of Abyssinia (BOA), and also served as Acting President for some time of the same bank. Before he moved to BOA, he had served the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) at various capacities.  He holds a Post Graduate Degree in Corporate Management & Finance from University of Pantheon Sorbonne, France in 2004 and a BA Degree in Management from Addis Ababa University (AAU) in 1995. Email: Anteneh.Assefa@ecx.com.et

Responsible for Strategy Planning, Member Development, Product Development and Member Client Relations. Has more than 14 years of prior experience in Hospitality Financial Management, Commodity Trading Management and Strategic Planning, MCOM in International Business Operations from Indra Gandhi National Open University, and B.A in Marketing Management from Addis Ababa University. E-mail: Abenet.bekele@ecx.com.et 

Responsible for the day to day operation and supervision of the Exchange’s operations, including Trading Operations, Clearing House, Central Depository, Market Data, Quality Certification and Warehouse Operations.

Prior to joining the ECX, Anteneh Mitiku was a lecturer in Accounting and Finance at Addis Ababa University College of commerce, Jimma University and at the Faculty of Business and Economics of the Addis Ababa University. Anteneh holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Jimma University and MSC in Accounting and Finance from Addis Ababa University. Email: Anteneh.mitiku@ecx.com.et

Responsibilities include: formulating and amending the Rules of the Exchange, ensuring Member and Exchange compliance with applicable Rules and Regulations, and liaising regulatory bodies. Over 17 years of experience in Law enforcement, drafting legal documents and Compliance matters in Ethiopia. Prior positions include Public Prosecutor, Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Head of Civil Affairs Department at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Manager of Rules & Regulations unit at the ECX. LLB from Law Faculty of Addis Ababa University (July 1995) and LLM in Administrative & Constitutional Law from Amsterdam Law School of Amsterdam University (January 2005). E-mail: Shimelis.Habtewold@ecx.com.et

Tedla Kebede is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange responsible for setting the overall IT strategy for ECX and implementation of IT solutions deployed for the attainment of the ECX strategic objectives. He has over 13 years of experience related with information technology. Prior positions include Application Development Manager at ECX and Senior Computer Programmer at USAID/Basic Education Project. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in computer science from Addis Ababa University.

E-mail: Tedela.kebede@ecx.com.et