President Bola Tinubu has declared that Nigeria must move away from exporting raw cocoa beans and focus on processing the commodity locally to capture more value from the global chocolate market.
The president, represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, stated this on Tuesday at the Cocoa Value Addition Summit 2026 in Abuja.
The summit, themed “From Bean to Brand: The Bean in My Hand, The Brand in Our Future,” brought together government officials, cocoa-producing countries, investors, development partners, and industry stakeholders to discuss strategies for expanding cocoa processing and manufacturing across Africa.
President Tinubu said Nigeria could no longer rely on exporting raw agricultural commodities while other countries generated most of the profits from processing, branding and manufacturing finished products.
“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,” he said.
