By Obafemi Oredein

Special to Dow Jones Newswires


IBADAN, Nigeria--Nigeria's national cocoa industry body on Wednesday called on President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu to pay greater attention to the cocoa sector and raise production.

"There is a 10-year cocoa development plan which will be a roadmap for cocoa development in Nigeria," Muftau Abolarinwa, president of the Cocoa Association of Nigeria, said.

Nigeria's cocoa output is expected to increase to 713,000 metric tons in 2028 from 230,000 tons in 2018 under the plan which was drawn up by a ministerial committee composed of officials from the industry and agriculture ministries as well as representatives from the private sector, including CAN.

The decade-long plan aims to drive the cocoa regeneration and value process for the entire cocoa sector, with the private sector taking the lead. It will also establish a framework on which the cocoa-value chain can be calculated, according to Sayina Riman, a former CAN president under whose tenure the plan was finalized.

"Everything is embedded in the 10-year plan, so we need the incoming government to look into it to ensure that all these things are being done at the right time to help the country to achieve its set target on production," Mr. Abolarinwa told Dow Jones Newswires.

Mr. Tinubu was governor of Nigeria's main commercial center, Lagos state, for eight years and won the presidential election on February 25 as a candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, or APC. In his campaign policy document, he said national security, economy, agriculture, power, oil and gas, transport and education are top of his government action plan list.

Mr. Tinubu, who is expected to be sworn in as president on May 29, didn't outline his cocoa development plan in the policy document. However, if the new government "plans to bring back the cocoa marketing board...the board at this time will create a serious problem in the market for Nigerian cocoa," Mr. Abolarinwa said.

When it existed, the marketing board was the only exporter of Nigerian cocoa, it dictated purchase prices paid to farmers and provided agro-chemicals and other inputs to farmers at subsidized rates, among other functions. It was abolished in August 1986 when a free market system was introduced in the country's cocoa sector.

Mr. Abolarinwa said CAN will send its position paper on cocoa development to the new government once it forms and will advise the government to "create a board that will only regulate the cocoa sector, [rather] than being involved in buying and selling of cocoa."

Dow Jones Newswires was unable to get a comment from Mr. Tinubu's aide on his cocoa policy.


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