Cocoa Beans Export: Nigeria earns N122.89 billion (QI, 2022)
The Nigerian Government says the country earned 122.89 billion Naira from the export of raw cocoa beans and cocoa products in the first quarter (Q1) of 2022.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Muhammed Abubakar, disclosed this in Akure, the Ondo state capital, at the maiden edition of the National Cocoa Festival tagged “Stakeholders’ Collaboration to Make Nigeria’s Cocoa Industry Sustainable.”
Represented by the ministry’s south-west zonal director, Mrs. Omolara Abimbola-Oguntuyi, emphasized the prominence of agriculture in the enhancement of economic stability.
“Agriculture holds the key to the collective survival of people, including job creation, income generation, food and nutritional security, foreign treaties, among others.
“The Federal Government is committed to supporting the agricultural sector to diversify the economy, especially in the cocoa production sector.
“Diversification is no longer a myth but a reality, which will ensure that Nigeria regains its position as one of the highest cocoa producing countries in the world.
“It is now obvious that Nigeria cannot continue to rely on crude oil to develop economically, going by the instability of crude oil prices due to the Russian-Ukraine war,” she noted.
Also speaking at the event was the Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, who said the state government would continue to provide an enabling environment for businesses to thrive in the state.
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi, who was decorated as the Grand Patron of Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria, said, “to make Nigeria’s cocoa industry sustainable, all cocoa-producing states must render support and contribute to the development of cocoa production in the country.”
Governor Akeredolu, who was also represented by his Senior Special Assistant on Agric and Agribusiness, Akin Olotu, urged the stakeholders across the states to support cocoa production in the country.
Meanwhile, the President of Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria (CFAN), Mr. Adeola Adegoke, said the association would soon start enumeration/bio-data collection of all cocoa farmers in Nigeria. The task, he added, would be done in collaboration with the cocoa value-chain stakeholders across the cocoa-producing states and cocoa communities’ traditional leaders.
According to him, this would enable investors, policy-makers and other relevant stakeholders to understand necessary information about their cocoa beans, cocoa plantation environment, inputs and other activities in the cocoa industry.
To guarantee continuity and sustain support to the cocoa industry, he further urged all beneficiaries of the bank loans provided for cocoa-producing states to repay their loans fully without any further delay so as to sustain the CBN and other financial partners’ support for the cocoa production sub-sector.
Source: Agro Nigeria
