President Bola Tinubu has declared that Nigeria will no longer accept exporting raw cocoa beans while importing finished chocolate, telling the opening of the 2026 Cocoa Value Addition Summit in Abuja that value addition must become the cornerstone of the country’s industrial strategy if Africa hopes to capture a larger share of the global cocoa economy.
The summit, themed From Bean to Brand, saw Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria, growers of roughly two thirds of the world’s cocoa, sign a framework establishing the Cocoa Value Addition Alliance, known as the Abuja Declaration, committing to speak with one voice in global cocoa negotiations. The federal government, cocoa producing states, farmers, processors and financiers also signed Nigeria’s own national compact under the Cocoa Value Addition Accord framework. Represented by Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Abubakar Kyari, Tinubu said Africa produces about 70 percent of the world’s cocoa yet retains barely six cents of every dollar the global chocolate industry generates, an industry now valued between $130 billion and $165 billion, an imbalance he called unacceptable as Nigeria commits to moving from raw commodity exports to manufacturing finished goods. More than 300,000 farming families cultivate cocoa across over 1.4 million hectares nationwide, he noted, making Nigeria responsible for six to seven percent of global output, and soaring international prices, which climbed above $10,000 per tonne, earned the country more than N3 trillion, contributing almost 25 percent of non oil exports, earnings that still came largely from raw bean exports. We export the bean at one price and import it back as a chocolate bar at 20 times that price, he said, that is not trade, that is tribute, and the era of tribute is over.
Under the Renewed Hope agenda, Tinubu said, value addition now sits at the heart of Nigeria’s industrial policy, pointing to a 70,000 tonne cocoa processing facility underway in Sagamu and national grinding capacity that has already exceeded 120,000 tonnes annually, alongside the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria’s recent rollout of one million improved, higher yielding, disease resistant seedlings meant to guarantee sustainable supply for domestic processors. He said the Bank of Industry stands ready to finance bankable cocoa projects, with investment agreements expected to be concluded during the summit, and urged Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon to deepen collaboration, arguing that together the four countries, accounting for nearly three quarters of global cocoa production, could reshape the global market through coordinated action.
Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment John Owan Enoh, drawing on his own background as a cocoa farmer, said Africa’s biggest challenge is no longer production but the inability to retain value from what it produces, calling the current structure of global cocoa trade an injustice in which producers bear the greatest risk while most profit is captured outside Africa. He said the summit marks the start of correcting that imbalance through the value addition accord, dedicated financing windows, a national traceability system and the new alliance spanning Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon, and warned Africa must collectively engage emerging regulation like the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation rather than let standards affecting African producers be designed without African input. He pointed to extreme price swings, from over $11,000 per tonne in late 2024 to about $3,100 in March 2026 before rebounding to roughly $5,000, as proof that farmers capture only a fraction of price increases while absorbing most losses. When a market delivers the risk to one end of the chain and the reward to the other, he said, that is not a market failure, that is a market design, and what has been designed can be redesigned, calling closing the gap between bean and brand the single most important industrial assignment of this generation, one favoured by strong global demand, AfCFTA, rising Nigerian cocoa exports and new global traceability rules.
Enoh said the Cocoa Value Addition Accord will contain names, numbers and dates, monitored annually through a Delivery Council he will personally chair. I did not enter government to sign documents that sleep in drawers, he said, this one will be awake, announcing dedicated BoI financing windows for cocoa processors and a commitment to build a national traceability system identifying every farmer and mapping every farm to meet international standards while ensuring premiums actually reach producers. He said the Abuja Declaration would unite the four countries to speak with one voice on sustainability, traceability and global trade negotiations, insisting a rule made about Africa without Africa is not a standard, it is a sentence, and that the alliance would ensure sustainability costs are shared across the value chain rather than dumped on smallholder farmers. He challenged investors to build here, grind here, brand here, arguing early movers in African chocolate would become the continent’s equivalent of banking and telecommunications pioneers, and pledged at least 40 percent of opportunities created under the accord for young people and women.
Bank of Industry Managing Director Olasupo Olusi said financing will determine whether Nigeria succeeds in turning cocoa from a commodity into an industrial value chain, recalling that cocoa once financed landmark public infrastructure, including Cocoa House and free primary education in the old Western Region, and could become a major industrialisation driver again. He said Nigeria produces over 300,000 tonnes of cocoa annually but processes only a fraction locally, one of the widest gaps between production and processing among major cocoa producing nations, disclosing that BoI disbursed more than N164 billion to over 3,500 agro processing businesses in 2025 and secured a 60 million euro European Investment Bank facility to support cocoa sector development, with the bank set to provide long term financing for processing plants, packaging facilities, laboratories and traceability infrastructure while mobilising additional private capital. Cocoa financing cannot be treated like ordinary commercial lending, he said, because the biology of the cocoa tree and the economics of processing require specialised financial products, arguing Nigeria’s next cocoa century will be built not on producing more beans but on what the country does to the beans, entering the value chain strategically, starting with grinding, cocoa powder and industrial ingredients before building globally recognised brands. He called Nigeria’s practice of importing cocoa powder while exporting raw beans an absurdity we can fix within the next two to five years, noting cocoa powder production alone would support import substitution while cocoa butter, liquor and ingredient exports would boost foreign exchange earnings. He announced seven to ten year financing for cocoa processing plants, tenors commercial banks rarely offer, and said BoI will convene commercial banks and development partners to build structured commodity finance, including warehouse receipt systems, export pre payment facilities and seasonal working capital tailored to processors, alongside shared Cocoa Value Addition Parks equipped with processing lines, quality laboratories, reliable electricity, wastewater treatment and digital traceability systems that let even small processors access world class infrastructure, combined with technical advisory, enterprise development and export documentation support, since access to capital alone does not build globally competitive businesses. Drawing lessons from neighbours, he said Cote d’Ivoire shows how incentives attract global processors while Ghana shows governments should not carry commodity price risk alone, models Nigeria intends to adapt, viewing cocoa not as a lending programme but as an entire ecosystem, financing everyone from nurseries and cooperatives to grinding plants, packaging factories, laboratories and chocolate manufacturers.
Ghana Cocoa Board Chief Executive Ransford Abbey called for a united African approach to cocoa value addition and price sovereignty, lamenting that Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Cameroon together produce about 75 percent of global cocoa yet earn less than 10 percent of the wealth the global chocolate industry generates. He urged Nigeria and Cameroon to join the existing Cote d’Ivoire Ghana cocoa initiative, arguing a four country alliance commanding roughly three quarters of global output would strengthen collective bargaining with multinational buyers and secure fairer returns for African farmers, insisting Africa must move beyond exporting raw beans toward processing, branding and consuming more cocoa products locally, since the continent needs equity, not charity, in the global cocoa value chain.
