By Ngozi Nwankwo
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has unveiled an ambitious plan to transform the cocoa value chain through revitalizing local processing, industrialization, and value added initiatives as well as boost the economy.
The President who was represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari , made this known during the Cocoa Value Addition Summit 2026 , with the theme “From Bean to Brand: The Bean in My Hand, The Brand in Our Future,”, held in Abuja, recently.
Tinubu stated that the initiative would promote a sustainable cocoa economy that is the leading GDP contributor, through a resurgence in production and industrialization to trigger robust domestic consumption, farm gate prosperity, youth engagement and increased foreign exchange earnings from the export of consistently superior quality beans and products.
Tinubu pointed out that ‘’ the Nigeria is shifting from exporting raw cocoa to processing it domestically, to create jobs, attract investments and earn more foreign exchange from cocoa sub sector’’.
He revealed that ‘’Africa produces about 70 per cent of the world’s cocoa, the continent earns only a tiny fraction of the over $130bn global chocolate industry because most processing, branding and manufacturing take place overseas’’.
The President stated that “Seven of every ten cocoa pods on this earth ripen under the African sun. They are grown by African hands on African soil with African knowledge passed down through generations, and yet of a global chocolate economy now valued at well over $130bn and by some recent estimates approaching $165bn.
“We will grind our beans at home, we will press our butter at home, we will make our chocolate at home, brand it at home and sell it to the world on our own terms’’
He disclosed that ‘’the proof is already rising out of the ground, At Sagamu, Nigerian investors are building a 70,000-ton processing facility, the largest this nation has ever seen. Our national grinding capacity has crossed 120,000 tons a year, and it’s growing. The Bank of Industry stands ready as a co-convener of this summit, with capital prepared for deployment into bankable projects.”
The President noted that more than 350,000 Nigerian farming families cultivate cocoa across over 1.4 million hectares, making the country one of the world’s leading producers with about six to seven per cent of global output. He added that cocoa generated more than N3tn in export earnings when global prices exceeded $10,000 per tonne, contributing almost a quarter of Nigeria’s non-oil exports.
He further revealed that the Federal Government through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security ‘’on the first of July, 2026, at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria in Ibadan, Oyo state, flagged off the One Million Improved Cocoa Seedlings Roll-Out Programme, bred by our own scientists, quicker to mature, higher in yield, resistant to disease and equal to a changing climate, going out to farming families across our cocoa states’’
He emphasized that “there has never been a moment when processing of origin made more commercial sense than it does today. Nigeria is not asking for charity. Nigeria is offering the best open position in the global food economy. We are open for business, and we are serious’’.
“Take it to our farmers, the true owners of this crop. I make a promise, and I make it in the name of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Value addition is not a project to be done around you. It is a covenant to be kept with you. For a century, the reward of this harvest has been far from the hands that raise It.”, the President concluded.
