President Bola Tinubu has called on African countries to end their long-standing dependence on exporting raw cocoa beans and focus on value addition to increase earnings from the global chocolate industry.
Tinubu made the call on Tuesday at the Africa Cocoa Summit in Abuja, themed ‘From Bean to Brand,’ where stakeholders discussed strategies for strengthening Africa’s position in the global cocoa value chain.
Represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, the president said Africa produced about 70 per cent of the world’s cocoa but retained only a small fraction of the industry’s value.
“We gathered in Abuja today not to lament that arithmetic. We gathered to end it.”
Tinubu said Nigeria was committed to processing cocoa beans locally, manufacturing chocolate products, building indigenous brands and competing effectively in international markets.
According to him, value addition remains a key component of the Renewed Hope Agenda and the country’s broader industrialisation strategy.
He said that investors were developing a 70,000-ton cocoa processing facility in Shagamu, Ogun State, while Nigeria’s cocoa grinding capacity had surpassed 120,000 tonnes annually.
Earlier, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, said the summit aligned with the Federal Government’s goal of building a one trillion-dollar economy by 2030.
She said that in spite of Nigeria’s significant contribution to global cocoa production, the country earned only a fraction of the value generated across the cocoa and chocolate industry.
Oduwole said the government was promoting value addition through manufacturing incentives, investment promotion and stronger collaboration among relevant institutions.
She added that efforts were also underway to improve market access through existing trade partnerships and opportunities provided by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The minister urged investors to take advantage of opportunities within regional and global value chains to unlock the full economic potential of the cocoa sector.
Also speaking, the Minister of State for Industry, Senator John Enoh, said the summit represented another milestone in the implementation of Nigeria’s Industrial Policy.
Enoh said the proposed Cocoa Value Addition Alliance would bring together Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon — countries that accounted for about 75 per cent of global cocoa production.
He said the alliance would strengthen regional cooperation and help producing countries retain more value from the global cocoa market.
“We are not here to disrupt existing partnerships but to expand them.”
Enoh urged African countries to move beyond exporting raw cocoa beans and focus on producing branded cocoa products capable of competing in global markets.
The summit concluded with the signing of the Abuja Declaration on Cocoa Value Addition by participating countries, reaffirming their commitment to advancing cocoa processing and industrial development across Africa. (NAN)
