President Bola Tinubu says Africa must end its long-standing dependence on exporting raw cocoa beans and embrace value addition to capture greater benefits from the global chocolate industry.
Mr Tinubu made the declaration at the Africa Cocoa Summit in Abuja, themed “From Bean to Brand” on Tuesday in Abuja.
The president was represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari.
Mr Tinubu said Africa produced about 70 per cent of global cocoa but retained barely six cents of every dollar earned from the chocolate industry.
“We gathered in Abuja today not to lament that arithmetic. We gathered to end it,” he said.
Mr Tinubu said Nigeria would process cocoa beans, manufacture chocolate, build local brands and compete globally instead of exporting raw commodities.
He said value addition was central to the Renewed Hope Agenda and Nigeria’s industrialisation drive.
Mr Tinubu said investors were developing a 70,000-tonne cocoa processing facility in Shagamu.
He added that Nigeria’s grinding capacity had exceeded 120,000 tonnes yearly.
Earlier, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, said the summit aligned with the ministry’s mandate to build a one trillion-dollar economy by 2030.
Mr Oduwole said Nigeria earned only a fraction of the value generated from cocoa in spite contributing significantly to global production.
She said the Federal Government was supporting value addition through manufacturing incentives, investment promotion and stronger collaboration across relevant agencies.
The minister said government would also improve market access through existing trade partnerships and the African Continental Free Trade Area.
She urged investors to leverage opportunities across regional and global value chains to unlock the sector’s full potential.
Also speaking, the Minister of State for Industry, Sen. John Enoh, said the summit marked another step in implementing Nigeria’s Industrial Policy.
Mr Enoh said the Cocoa Value Addition Alliance would unite Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon, which together account for about 75 per cent of global cocoa production.
He said the alliance would strengthen regional cooperation and enable producing countries to capture more value from the global cocoa market.
“We are not here to disrupt existing partnerships but to expand them,” Mr Enoh said.
He urged African countries to move beyond exporting raw beans and focus on producing branded cocoa products for global markets.
The summit ended with the signing of the Abuja Declaration on Cocoa Value Addition by the participating countries.