The Bank of Industry (BOI) has said about 70 percent of its €85 million financing facility from the European Investment Bank (EIB) will be directed towards developing Nigeria’s cocoa and dairy sectors.
BOI Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Olasupo Olusi, disclosed this on Tuesday during the Africa Cocoa Summit held in Abuja.
The summit, organised by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment under the theme, “From Bean to Brand,” brought together government officials and industry stakeholders from Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon to promote cocoa value addition across Africa.
Olusi said the €60 million earmarked for cocoa and dairy forms part of the broader €85 million EIB-BOI facility, backed by the European Union under the Global Gateway initiative.
According to him, the funding will support local processing, ingredient production and chocolate manufacturing, rather than the continued export of raw cocoa beans.
He said BOI would prioritise financing for processors, cooperatives and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) involved in value addition to boost local production, create jobs and improve foreign exchange earnings.
Olusi noted that Nigeria loses billions of naira by exporting raw cocoa beans and importing finished chocolate products, stressing that the country must focus on building factories around cocoa-producing communities.
He added that the bank would complement the financing with technical assistance to help farmers and processors meet the European Union Deforestation Regulation and other international environmental and social standards.
The BOI boss said the bank disbursed more than ₦164 billion to over 3,500 agro-processing and food businesses in 2025, supporting factories, mills, packhouses and cold chain facilities while connecting nearly 48,000 smallholder farmers to industrial value chains.
He said the new facility would finance the entire cocoa value chain, including nurseries, farmer cooperatives, grinding plants, ingredient factories, packaging lines and chocolate manufacturers.
Speaking at the summit, President Bola Tinubu called on African cocoa-producing countries to move away from exporting raw cocoa beans and focus on value addition.
Represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, the President said although Africa produces about 70 per cent of the world’s cocoa, the continent retains only six cents of every dollar generated by the global chocolate industry.
Tinubu said Nigeria was committed to expanding local cocoa processing, strengthening chocolate manufacturing and building indigenous brands capable of competing globally.
He also revealed that investors are developing a 70,000-tonne cocoa processing facility in Shagamu, Ogun State, while Nigeria’s cocoa grinding capacity has exceeded 120,000 tonnes annually.
Earlier, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, said the summit supports the Federal Government’s target of building a one-trillion-dollar economy by 2030.
She said the government was promoting cocoa value addition through manufacturing incentives, investment promotion and stronger collaboration, while leveraging opportunities under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to expand market access.
Also speaking, the Minister of State for Industry, Senator John Owan Enoh, announced plans to establish the Cocoa Value Addition Alliance involving Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon.
According to him, the alliance will strengthen regional cooperation, promote local processing and enable African cocoa-producing countries to capture more value from the global cocoa industry.
The Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Ransford Abbey, also called for greater investment in domestic cocoa processing, saying Africa produces about 75 per cent of the world’s cocoa but earns less than 10 per cent of the global chocolate industry’s wealth.
He urged African countries to work together through investment, technology transfer and regional collaboration to increase returns for cocoa farmers and their economies.
The Head of Cooperation of the European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Massimo De Luca, reaffirmed the EU’s support for cocoa value addition and urged participating governments to provide the policy framework needed for the initiative to succeed.