By Musa Ibrahim
Nigeria has long ranked among the world’s leading cocoa producers, yet the country continues to earn only a fraction of the wealth generated by the global chocolate industry. While thousands of tonnes of cocoa beans leave Nigerian ports every year, much of the value is created elsewhere through processing, packaging and manufacturing. The Bank of Industry (BoI)’s latest €60 million financing agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) signals a deliberate effort to reverse that trend by shifting Nigeria’s cocoa industry from commodity exports to value creation.
Speaking at the Cocoa Value Addition Summit in Abuja, themed ‘From Bean to Brand,’ the Managing Director of the BoI, Dr. Olasupo Olusi, announced that the bank had secured a €60 million credit facility from the EIB to strengthen cocoa processing and manufacturing across the country.
The financing will support cocoa processing, ingredient manufacturing, packaging and chocolate production, sectors widely regarded as the missing links in Nigeria’s cocoa value chain.
Dr. Olusi said the facility addresses one of the biggest constraints facing indigenous processors, which is limited access to affordable long-term financing.
“An example of this is the €60 million credit facility we received from the European Investment Bank to develop the cocoa sector. This will help Nigerian processors compete more fairly with multinationals that have access to cheaper finance.”
The intervention goes beyond providing loans. According to Dr. Olusi, the BoI intends to establish dedicated financing windows covering every stage of cocoa processing while laying the foundation for an integrated industrial ecosystem.
“We are not approaching cocoa as a lending programme; we are building an industrial ecosystem.”
He disclosed that the bank is exploring the establishment of a Cocoa Value Addition Park in Nigeria’s cocoa-producing belt, featuring shared processing facilities, quality laboratories, reliable electricity, effluent treatment systems and digital traceability infrastructure.
“Our goal is to finance everything from nurseries and cooperatives to grinding plants, ingredient factories, packaging lines and chocolate manufacturers.”
The proposal reflects a growing recognition that Nigeria’s competitiveness in agriculture will increasingly depend on its ability to process commodities locally rather than exporting raw produce.
Despite producing more than 300,000 metric tonnes of cocoa annually, Nigeria currently has an effective grinding capacity of only about 50,000 tonnes. The gap means a significant proportion of the country’s cocoa leaves its borders without undergoing value-adding processes that generate higher export earnings and create industrial jobs.
Dr. Olusi believes expanding domestic processing could increase Nigeria’s export value by between two and four times while reducing dependence on raw bean exports.
“The goal is industrialisation, import substitution through local cocoa powder production, export promotion of butter and liquor to ECOWAS and the Gulf, and job creation for young Nigerians.”
His remarks reinforce the BoI’s broader development philosophy. “For at the Bank of Industry, we hold to a simple conviction: we are not in the business of financing commodities. We are in the business of financing value creation.”
The bank’s recent performance demonstrates its growing focus on industrial agriculture.
According to Olusi, BoI disbursed more than N164 billion to over 3,500 agro-processing and food businesses in 2025, supporting factories, mills, packhouses and cold-chain projects while integrating nearly 48,000 smallholder farmers into industrial value chains.
The summit also highlighted that the need for greater value addition extends beyond Nigeria.
The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Chris Isokpunwu, represented by the ministry’s Director of Industrial Development, Mohammed Bala, noted that more than 80 percent of Nigeria’s cocoa is still exported as raw beans despite the country’s processing potential.
He said expanding domestic processing would increase export earnings, create jobs and stimulate industries such as confectionery, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
The call for industrial transformation was echoed by the Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Ransford Abbey, who urged African cocoa-producing countries to retain more value within the continent.
“Africa produces about 75 percent of the world’s cocoa but earns less than 10 percent of the value generated by the global chocolate industry.”
He stated: “This system cannot continue. We must shift the paradigm from exporting raw poverty to creating refined wealth right here on the African continent.”
Also speaking at the summit, Massino Deluko, representing the European Union, reaffirmed the bloc’s commitment to supporting cocoa value addition in Nigeria while urging governments to strengthen the policy and regulatory environment needed to attract greater private investment.
The discussions at the summit point to a common conclusion. Nigeria’s future in the global cocoa industry will depend less on producing more beans and more on processing them into higher-value products. If backed by sustained investment, supportive infrastructure and consistent industrial policies, initiatives such as the BOI-EIB financing facility could help reposition Nigeria from a supplier of raw commodities to a competitive player in the global cocoa manufacturing value chain. Such a shift would strengthen export earnings, create skilled jobs and ensure that a greater share of the wealth generated from Nigerian cocoa remains within the country.
