One of the largest cocoa players in Nigeria, Sunbeth Global Concepts, which recently launched a N200 billion commercial paper programme, said it exported about 52,000 tonnes of cocoa out of the country in 2025.
The firm’s chief executive, Mr Olasunkanmi Owoyemi, in an interview with CNN, said the growth has been impressive despite the challenges of operating in Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
“Last year, we did around 52,000 tonnes of cocoa export out of Nigeria. And I mean that I remember when I started this business, when I bought 200 tonnes, I felt as though we are doing something great, but within eight years of doing 50,000 tonnes in over 50,000 tonnes in cocoa alone showed how much we’ve grown, how much people we’ve brought in, how much people have been able to contribute to our progress,” he said on CNN Marketplace hosted by Ms Zain Asher.
The latest edition of the programme focuses on the country’s agricultural sector, especially how the players have been navigating the challenges.
Mr Owoyemi said one of the major challenges of operating in Nigeria’s agricultural sector is “getting people to move back to the productive sector.”
“For us as a business, our vision is to empower the origin producers of food ingredients, products with the financing structure, logistics, markets, and education and technology. It’s a massive challenge and needs a massive scale of financing, massive scale of research, and technology.
“This challenge being resolved alone can turn us easily from just producing to processing, consuming, and exporting the refined products and to enable intra-African trades to be a model for the world,” he noted.
Speaking on the importance of investing in future talent, he said, “The Sunbeth Excellence Partnership programme we use to reward and celebrate the best graduating students in the local universities in Nigeria, which involves cash gift and we integrate them into our system and take them to put them into expose them globally by taking them into courses, like executive programmes in one of the best universities in the world to let them understand it.”
For the Operations Manager of Rural Farmers Hub, Nanshal Silas, maintaining healthy soil is a challenge for an increasing number of farmers worldwide as agricultural demand continues to grow.
“Most times, farmers have a very big challenge. And this challenge is not far from their inability to understand what is happening in the soil. First of all, for a farmer to grow crops and to maximise profit, he or she must have in-depth knowledge,” Silas stated.
An Extensionist at the agri-tech company, Aishatu Shuaibu, said Rural Farmers Hub helps farmers with soil testing.
“I get to search for local farmers within communities. Then I take their soil coordinates. After taking the soil coordinates to know what they need in their soils, I guide them on what to apply, the fertiliser that is needed and the major procedure that is supposed to be taken for them to have a bountiful harvest,” Ms Shuaibu said.
An Agricultural Biotechnologist at Sheda Science and Technology Complex in Abuja, Dr Andrew Iloh, told CNN that, “One of the biggest challenges for every kind of technology is adaptation. Not just bringing the technology, but every other thing needs to work hand in hand so that agricultural productivity in Nigeria can be improved.”