President Tinubu Ends Raw Cocoa Exports, Says Nigeria Ready To Make Chocolates

President Bola Tinubu has declared an end to Nigeria’s dependence on exporting raw cocoa beans, unveiling a new industrial agenda aimed at processing cocoa locally into finished products such as chocolate before exporting them to international markets.

The president said the policy shift is designed to boost local manufacturing, create jobs, attract investment and increase foreign exchange earnings by ensuring Nigeria captures more value from its cocoa industry instead of exporting raw commodities.

Represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, at the Cocoa Value Addition Summit 2026 in Abuja on Tuesday, Tinubu said Nigeria must move beyond the long-standing practice of exporting raw agricultural products while importing finished goods.

Tinubu noted that despite Africa accounting for about 70 per cent of global cocoa production, the continent receives only a fraction of the wealth generated from the global chocolate market, estimated at between $130 billion and $165 billion, because processing and branding largely take place outside Africa.

He declared that Nigeria would now focus on building domestic processing capacity.

“Nigeria will no longer export raw beans while importing finished value. We will ground 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,” the President said.

Seeking to reassure investors that the plan was already taking shape, Tinubu pointed to ongoing investments in cocoa processing across the country.

He disclosed that a 70,000-ton cocoa processing facility—the largest in Nigeria—is under construction in Sagamu, while the country's annual cocoa grinding capacity has exceeded 120,000 tonnes.

According to him, the Bank of Industry is prepared to finance viable projects that support the government's cocoa industrialisation programme.

The president said more than 300,000 farming families cultivate cocoa across over 1.4 million hectares in Nigeria, making the country responsible for between six and seven per cent of global cocoa production.

He added that cocoa exports generated more than N3 trillion when global prices climbed above $10,000 per tonne, accounting for nearly one-quarter of Nigeria's non-oil export earnings.

However, Tinubu stressed that exporting raw cocoa was no longer sustainable if Nigeria intends to maximise the sector's economic potential.

“There has never been a moment when processing at origin made more commercial sense than it does today. Nigeria is not asking for charity. Nigeria is offering the best open position in the global food economy. We are open for business, and we are serious,” he said.

The president also assured cocoa farmers that the value-addition programme would directly benefit producers, describing it as a long-term commitment to ensure they receive greater returns from their harvest.