Abuja: The Bank of Industry (BOI) has secured a pound 60 million credit facility from the European Investment Bank to fund Nigeria’s cocoa value addition drive, with a focus on processing, ingredients, and chocolate manufacturing. The Managing Director of BOI, Dr. Olasupo Olusi, disclosed this on Tuesday at the Cocoa Value Addition Summit in Abuja, themed ‘From Bean to Brand’. He emphasized that the facility aims to support the cocoa sector by establishing dedicated financing windows for cocoa processing, ingredient manufacturing, packaging, and chocolate production.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, Dr. Olusi highlighted that this facility is part of BOI’s broader strategy to mobilize blended, concessional, and patient capital from development partners to support the cocoa sector. He explained that beyond the EIB facility, BOI plans to explore financing shared physical and digital platforms such as a Cocoa Value Addition Park in the cocoa belt, which will include shared processing lines, quality laboratories, reliable power, effluent treatment, and digital traceability for processors of all sizes.
Dr. Olusi stated, “We are not approaching cocoa as a lending programme; we are building an industrial ecosystem.” He detailed that the goal is to finance everything from nurseries and cooperatives to grinding plants, ingredient factories, packaging lines, and chocolate manufacturers. He further explained that cocoa financing cannot be generic and must be structured around the biology of the tree, the rhythm of the harvest, and the economics of the factory.
Citing BOI’s track record, Dr. Olusi mentioned that in 2025, the bank disbursed over N164 billion to more than 3,500 agro and food-processing businesses, linking nearly 48,000 smallholder farmers into industrial value chains. He stressed that Nigeria produces over 300,000 tonnes of cocoa annually but has an effective grinding capacity of only about 50,000 tonnes. Closing this gap could multiply export value two to four times.
Dr. Olusi emphasized that the new financing would target the entire ecosystem, from nurseries and farmer cooperatives to grinding plants, ingredient factories, packaging lines, and chocolate manufacturers. He added that capital would be paired with business development support, technical advisory, and enterprise training to strengthen costing, quality, standards, and export documentation.
Dr. Chris Isokpunwu, the Permanent Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, represented by the Director of Industrial Development, Mr. Mohammed Bala, stated that cocoa remains strategic to Nigeria’s industrialization agenda. He noted that more than 80 percent of Nigeria’s cocoa is exported as raw beans despite the industry’s enormous processing potential.
Also speaking at the summit, Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Ransford Abbey, urged African cocoa-producing countries to deepen domestic processing. He mentioned, “Africa produces about 75 percent of the world’s cocoa but earns less than 10 percent of the global chocolate industry’s wealth.” He advocated for stronger regional collaboration, investment, and technology transfer to help African countries capture greater value from the global cocoa economy.
The representative of the European Union, Mr. Massino Deluko, reiterated the importance of value addition in the cocoa value chain and expressed the EU’s support for the initiative. He called on governments to ensure they play their part in establishing the proper framework necessary for the success of the initiative.