Nigeria grows enough plantain to feed its 242 million population and supply the West African region. Yet, within the broader $31.4 billion global market, the country’s footprint remains virtually nonexistent.
With an annual output of over 3 million metric tonnes, Nigeria easily ranks among Africa’s top five plantain growers. The country sits in a region that accounts for over 30 million of the 70 million tonnes demanded globally each year. However, while African peers like Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, and Ghana capture the bulk of domestic value on the continent, and nations like Myanmar, Guatemala, and Ecuador command 46 percent of the global export market, Nigeria ships out next to nothing.
The numbers highlight a missed economic opportunity. According to the most recent UN trade data, Nigeria earned a mere $49,327 from plantain exports in 2024. The scale of this underperformance becomes glaring when measured against Côte d’Ivoire, the continent’s top earner, which generated a commanding $57.7 million over the same period. Despite its massive domestic yield, Nigeria’s footprint in the international market is essentially a rounding error, accounting for less than one percent of the total export value for the period.
