Nigeria Pushes Cocoa Value‑Addition, Denies Raw Export Ban

Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has clarified that it does not intend to ban raw cocoa bean exports. Minister Senator Abubakar Kyari said the government’s objective is to promote value addition—encouraging local processing into cocoa butter, powder and chocolate—while allowing raw exports to continue as domestic capacity expands. The policy aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which seeks to increase farmer incomes, create jobs and retain more of the $130 billion global chocolate market value within Nigeria.

At the Cocoa Value‑Addition Summit in Abuja, Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon signed the Abuja Declaration, forming a strategic alliance that aims to shift the African cocoa sector from a raw‑bean exporter to a producer of finished cocoa products. The bloc plans to negotiate collectively with international buyers and to end the export of raw beans, positioning the four nations, which control about 75 % of global cocoa production, as the primary drivers of the market.