Abuja: President Bola Tinubu has urged African nations to transition from exporting raw cocoa beans to enhancing value addition, aiming to secure a larger share of the global chocolate industry’s profits. Tinubu’s remarks were delivered by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, at the Africa Cocoa Summit in Abuja, themed ‘From Bean to Brand’.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, President Tinubu highlighted that Africa accounts for approximately 70% of global cocoa production but retains a mere six cents of every dollar from the chocolate industry. “We gathered in Abuja today not to lament that arithmetic. We gathered to end it,” Tinubu stated, emphasizing Nigeria’s commitment to processing cocoa beans, manufacturing chocolate, building local brands, and competing on the international stage.
Tinubu underscored that value addition is crucial to the Renewed Hope Agenda and Nigeria’s industrialization drive. He mentioned that investors are developing a 70,000-tonne cocoa processing facility in Shagamu, and Nigeria’s grinding capacity has surpassed 120,000 tonnes annually. Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, noted that the summit aligns with the ministry’s goal of constructing a trillion-dollar economy by 2030. Despite Nigeria’s significant contribution to global cocoa production, the country captures only a small portion of its generated value.
Oduwole indicated that the Federal Government is promoting value addition through manufacturing incentives, investment promotion, and enhanced collaboration across relevant agencies. She stated that the government intends to improve market access via existing trade partnerships and the African Continental Free Trade Area, urging investors to seize opportunities within regional and global value chains to unlock the sector’s potential.
Minister of State for Industry, Sen. John Enoh, emphasized that the summit represents a step forward in implementing Nigeria’s Industrial Policy. He announced the formation of the Cocoa Value Addition Alliance, bringing together Nigeria, Ghana, C´te d’Ivoire, and Cameroon, which collectively produce about 75% of the world’s cocoa. The alliance aims to strengthen regional cooperation and enable producing countries to capture more value from the global cocoa market.
Additionally, Dr. Olaupo Olusi, Managing Director of the Bank of Industry (BOI), disclosed that the bank has secured a pound 60 million credit facility from the European Investment Bank to support Nigeria’s cocoa value addition drive, focusing on processing, ingredients, and chocolate manufacturing. The facility aims to provide Nigerian processors with competitive financing against multinationals.
Olusi explained that the facility forms part of BOI’s broader strategy to mobilize blended, concessional, and patient capital from development partners for the cocoa sector. 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, featuring shared processing lines, quality laboratories, reliable power, effluent treatment, and digital traceability.
Olusi highlighted that cocoa financing must be tailored to the biology of the tree, harvest rhythms, and factory economics. He noted the necessity for replanting finance to include grace periods of three to five years, while grinding plants require substantial seasonal finance to purchase a year’s beans within a four-month window. Processing plants and ingredient lines need patient seven to ten-year term capital, which commercial banks seldom offer.
Citing BOI’s past performance, Olusi stated that the bank had disbursed over ?164 billion in 2025 to more than 3,500 agro and food-processing businesses, financing factories, mills, packhouses, and cold chains, and integrating nearly 48,000 smallholder farmers into industrial value chains. The new financing will target the entire cocoa ecosystem, providing enterprise training and business development support alongside capital to enhance costing, quality, standards, and export documentation.