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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Federal Government has wooed European cocoa industry leaders and investors in Brussels with Nigeria’s one-million-hectare tree crops expansion programme.
This was disclosed yesterday by the Agribusiness and Productivity Enhancement Project Management Office (AgPE PMO) in the Office of the Vice President and the EU–Nigeria Agribusiness Platform (EUNAP).
Scheduled for Thursday, 29 October 2026, at the Nigeria/West Africa Cocoa Origins – EU Industry Match-Making Forum, on the sidelines of the Nigeria–Belgium-Luxembourg Business Forum, the presentation comes at a time when European industry is seeking new origins.
The forum itself is organised by EUNAP, managed by Agribusiness Register Limited under an EU Global Gateway grant, with the support of the European Cocoa Association (ECA), whose members account for about 95 per cent of Europe’s cocoa grinding capacity.
The keynote address will be delivered by the AgPE PMO of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Agribusiness in the Office of the Vice President. It will be the first presentation of the programme to a European audience, with cocoa expected to take a leading share.
Ahead of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which applies to large and medium operators from 30 December 2026, the presentation will directly address the questions European buyers are asking: where new cultivation will take place, how every plot will be traced from establishment, and how expansion will be delivered without forest loss.
Nigeria currently has over 350,000 cocoa-farming families cultivating over 1.4 million hectares. The new programme will grow this base on a deforestation-free, fully traceable footing and invite European industry to participate through long-term offtake, co-investment in processing and region-to-region partnership.
To ensure coordinated participation, the AgPE PMO is engaging relevant federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and cocoa-producing states ahead of the forum, including for the region-to-region track.
Beyond the forum, both parties have agreed terms of reference for a standing collaboration covering policy engagement, mobilisation of grant and development resources, and commercialisation of cocoa and other value chains.
Speaking on the partnership, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Agribusiness, Dr Kingsley Uzoma, stated: “Nigeria is presenting European industry with a plan, not a promise. The expansion of our tree crops will be planned, mapped and traced from the first seedling, so that every new hectare strengthens Nigeria’s standing as a responsible origin.”
On his part, the Founder/Director of Agribusiness Register Limited and Project Director of EUNAP, Roland Oroh, stated: “European industry has told us plainly what it needs from origin: scale, consistency and proof. The presence of the SSAP in the plenary answers the question every European buyer asks first — whether Nigeria’s commitment reaches the highest level of government.”
