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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Nigeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana have announced plans to join forces to boost Cocoa production.
Minister of State for Industry Trade and Investment, John Owan Enoh, in a statement yesterday, by his Special Assistant on Media, Odenke Ibiang, also disclosed that Nigeria would sign a national compact on processing what it grows.
Enoh noted that the countries that grow most of the world’s cocoa will gather in Abuja next week to declare that the century of exporting raw beans is over.
“At the Cocoa Value Addition Summit 2026, convened by the Federal Government of Nigeria under the theme From Bean to Brand, delegations of Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria will sign the Abuja Declaration, establishing a Cocoa Value Addition Alliance through which the four nations, the source of some two thirds of global cocoa production, will negotiate, set standards and engage world markets as one bloc.
“Nigeria will also sign the Cocoa Value Addition Accord, a national compact binding the Federal Government, the Governors of its cocoa-producing states, farmer and industry associations, researchers and development financiers to measurable commitments on processing, farmer income and investment, with a delivery council chaired by the Honourable Minister of State for Industry and progress reported publicly each year.
“The Summit convenes at a decisive moment for the global cocoa economy. World prices have swung from historic highs above eleven thousand United States dollars per tonne to near three thousand and back towards five thousand within eighteen months, a volatility absorbed most brutally at the farm gate.
“At the same time, the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation begins to apply to large and medium operators on 30 December 2026, requiring plot-level traceability for all cocoa entering the EU, which purchases roughly sixty per cent of global cocoa exports,” he said .
According to the minister, the Alliance is to commit its members to a joint position on the regulation’s implementation, including recognition of national traceability systems and the principle that compliance costs must not be pushed onto smallholder farmers.
He said: “For a hundred years, Africa has sent its cocoa to the world in sacks and received it back in wrappers, paying at both ends of the transaction.
“The distance between a bean and a brand is measured in jobs and in dignity, and on Tuesday, in Abuja, four nations begin closing that distance together. We do not gather to lament the market. We gather to redesign our place in it.”
The minister said being a cocoa farmer from Cross River State, he will deliver the keynote address.
“The Summit will also feature goodwill addresses by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) and Le Conseil du Café-Cacao of Côte d’Ivoire; a Money Plenary convening the Bank of Industry, NIRSAL and development finance institutions, at which major financing announcements are expected; and an industry spotlight by the Managing Director of Sunbeth Global Concepts on the construction of Nigeria’s largest cocoa processing plant, a 70,000-metric-tonne facility at Sagamu, Ogun State, scheduled for commissioning in 2027.
“The Summit holds on Tuesday, 14 July 2026 at the BAT International Conference Centre, Abuja, from 9:00am, and forms part of the implementation of the Nigeria Industrial Policy, under which agro-industrial value addition is a national priority of the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“About the Cocoa Value Addition Summit 2026
The Cocoa Value Addition Summit 2026 is convened by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment through the Office of the Honourable Minister of State for Industry, with the Bank of Industry as co-convener.
“Under the theme From Bean to Brand, it brings together government, industry, finance, research and farmer organisations from across Nigeria and its partner cocoa-producing nations to advance the processing, manufacturing and branding of African cocoa at origin,” he added.
