President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday declared that Nigeria would no longer export raw cocoa beans while importing finished chocolate products, unveiling a plan to transform the country’s cocoa industry through local processing, industrialisation and value addition.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, who represented Tinubu at the Cocoa Value Addition Summit 2026 in Abuja, disclosed that the President said the era of exporting raw agricultural commodities without capturing their full economic value must end as Nigeria seeks to create jobs, attract investments and earn more foreign exchange from cocoa.
The summit, themed “From Bean to Brand: The Bean in My Hand, The Brand in Our Future,” brought together ministers, governors, development partners, financiers, cocoa-producing countries, and investors to launch a new roadmap for Africa’s cocoa industry.
Tinubu noted that although Africa produces about 70 per cent of the world’s cocoa, it earns only a small share of the more than $130billion global chocolate industry because processing, branding and manufacturing take place overseas.
He said: “Nigeria will no longer export raw beans while importing finished value. 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.
“And let no one mistake this for rhetoric. 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 said more than 300,000 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 N3trillion in export earnings when global prices exceeded $10,000 per tonne, but stressed that exporting raw beans was no longer sustainable.
“There has never been a moment when processing at 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,” Tinubu added.
The Minister of State for Industry, Senator John Owan Enoh, said the summit marked a major step in implementing the Nigerian Industrial Policy, which seeks to expand domestic manufacturing and reduce dependence on raw commodity exports.
“We are not interested in exporting anonymous sacks anymore. We are interested in exporting value. If Nigeria truly wants to build a one-trillion-dollar economy, it cannot continue exporting raw materials while other countries earn the real wealth from processing and branding them,” he said.
Enoh also disclosed that the Federal Government was pursuing closer collaboration with Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon to establish an African cocoa alliance capable of controlling about 75 per cent of global cocoa production and strengthening the continent’s bargaining power.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Bank of Industry, Dr Olasupo Olusi, said the bank was ready to provide long-term financing to accelerate investments across the cocoa value chain.
He disclosed that the BOI disbursed more than N164billion in 2025 to over 3,500 agro-processing and food businesses and had secured a €60million credit facility from the European Investment Bank to support the cocoa sector.
“We are not approaching cocoa as a lending programme; we are building an industrial ecosystem. Our goal is to finance everything from nurseries and cooperatives to grinding plants, ingredient factories, packaging lines, and chocolate manufacturers,” Olusi said.
Delivering a goodwill message, the Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Ransford Abbey, called for stronger regional cooperation among Africa’s leading cocoa-producing nations, noting that the continent produces between 75 and 77 per cent of the world’s cocoa but earns less than 10 per cent of the global chocolate industry’s value.
“We do not need charity. We deserve equity. The time has come for Africa to process its own wealth, protect its farmers and negotiate with one voice in the global cocoa market,” he said.
The summit ended with the adoption of the Cocoa Value Addition Accord and the proposed Abuja Declaration to accelerate domestic cocoa processing, attract investments, improve farmers’ incomes and deepen collaboration among Africa’s major cocoa-producing countries.
The Tinubu administration said reversing Nigeria’s dependence on raw cocoa exports through industrialisation and value addition is central to its target of building a $1trillion economy while boosting non-oil exports, creating jobs and increasing foreign exchange earnings.