FG Targets $130bn Chocolate Market With Cocoa Processing Drive

President Bola Tinubu has announced that Nigeria will phase out the export of raw cocoa beans in favour of local processing, as part of a broader strategy to strengthen the country’s cocoa industry through industrialisation and value addition.

Speaking through the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, at the Cocoa Value Addition Summit 2026 in Abuja, the President said Nigeria could no longer afford to export raw agricultural products while importing finished goods.

He stressed that the new direction would create jobs, attract investment and increase foreign exchange earnings.

The summit, themed “From Bean to Brand: The Bean in My Hand, The Brand in Our Future,” brought together government officials, cocoa-producing countries, investors, financiers and development partners to chart a new course for Africa’s cocoa industry.

Tinubu noted that although Africa accounts for about 70 per cent of global cocoa production, it receives only a small share of the more than $130bn global chocolate market because processing, branding and manufacturing are largely done outside the continent.

He said Nigeria was determined to reverse this trend by processing cocoa domestically into products such as cocoa butter and chocolate before exporting them.

According to him, the country is already making progress, citing the construction of a 70,000-tonne cocoa processing facility in Sagamu and an increase in national cocoa grinding capacity to over 120,000 tonnes annually.

He added that the Bank of Industry had committed financing to support investments in the sector.

The President revealed that over 300,000 farming families cultivate cocoa across more than 1.4 million hectares, making Nigeria one of the world’s leading producers with between six and seven per cent of global output.

He also noted that cocoa generated more than N3 trillion in export earnings when global prices exceeded $10,000 per tonne, accounting for nearly one-quarter of Nigeria’s non-oil exports.

However, he maintained that relying on raw bean exports was no longer sustainable, describing local processing as a commercially viable opportunity.

Tinubu assured cocoa farmers that the government’s value-addition agenda would directly benefit them, promising that the wealth created from cocoa production would increasingly remain in the hands of those who cultivate the crop.

Also speaking, the Minister of State for Industry, Senator John Owan Enoh, described the summit as a key step in implementing the Tinubu administration’s industrial policy, which aims to expand domestic manufacturing and reduce dependence on raw commodity exports.

Enoh said Nigeria’s goal was no longer to measure success by the quantity of cocoa exported but by the value added before export.

He argued that achieving the country’s ambition of becoming a one-trillion-dollar economy would require processing and branding products locally rather than exporting raw materials.

Reflecting on his upbringing in Cross River State, Enoh said generations of cocoa farmers had not enjoyed the full economic benefits of their labour. He also lamented the absence of a major cocoa processing plant in one of Nigeria’s leading cocoa-producing states.

The minister disclosed that the Federal Government was working with Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon to establish a regional cocoa alliance capable of controlling about 75 per cent of global cocoa production.

He said the proposed Abuja Declaration would promote regional processing, investment, traceability and coordinated pricing among African producers.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Bank of Industry, Dr Olasupo Olusi, reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to providing long-term financing across the cocoa value chain.

He recalled that cocoa once funded landmark development projects, including Cocoa House, free education and major infrastructure in the former Western Region, and said the crop could again drive Nigeria’s industrial growth.

Olusi disclosed that the bank disbursed over N164bn in 2025 to more than 3,500 agro-processing and food businesses, while connecting about 48,000 smallholder farmers to industrial value chains. He also announced a €60 million credit facility secured from the European Investment Bank to support cocoa processing, ingredient production, packaging and chocolate manufacturing.

According to him, Nigeria produces over 300,000 tonnes of cocoa annually but processes only about 50,000 tonnes locally, leaving significant room for expansion through value addition.