•••Nigeria ranks 4th globally in cocoa production with over 320,000 metric tonnes annually but exports most of its beans raw, earning about $700 million each year.
President Bola Tinubu has unveiled a bold plan to transform Nigeria’s cocoa industry by ending the country’s long-standing dependence on exporting raw cocoa beans and shifting focus to local processing and value addition.
The President declared that Nigeria can no longer continue exporting raw cocoa while importing finished chocolate and other cocoa products, describing the practice as a major economic loss.
He said the new policy would promote industrialisation, create jobs, increase foreign exchange earnings and position Nigeria as a leading producer of finished cocoa products.
Nigeria is currently the fourth-largest cocoa producer in the world, producing more than 320,000 metric tonnes of cocoa annually. Despite this output, the country exports the vast majority of its cocoa beans in raw form, generating about $700 million in export earnings each year, while much of the value-added processing and profits are retained abroad.
Tinubu disclosed that Nigeria’s cocoa processing capacity has now exceeded 120,000 metric tonnes annually, with a new 70,000-metric-tonne processing plant under construction in Sagamu, Ogun State, expected to become the largest in the country upon completion.
The President also announced that the Bank of Industry will provide financing for viable cocoa processing projects, while Nigeria joins Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon in a regional initiative aimed at expanding local cocoa processing, boosting Africa’s share of the global chocolate market and reducing dependence on raw bean exports.
