Nigeria must process agro commodities to boost export earnings — Stakeholders

By Cynthia Alo

Stakeholders in the agriculture and financial sectors have reiterated the need for Nigeria to move beyond exporting raw agricultural commodities to processing and adding value to its farm produce to increase export earnings, create jobs and strengthen domestic industries.

They made this known during the panel session themed, ‘Building Competitive Export Value Chains: Investments and Partnerships for Nigeria’s Agricultural Transformation,’ at the 2026 FirstBank Agric & Export Expo in Lagos.

Chief Executive Officer, Greenview Fertilizer Corporation, Vishwajit Sinha, said Nigeria was losing significant economic opportunities by exporting agricultural raw materials instead of processed products.

Sinha said: “If you export your raw material, then you are exporting all the jobs. And if you import the finished product, then you are importing poverty.”

He said the global market for chocolate and cocoa products was about $150 billion, compared with about $10–12 billion for raw cocoa exports from major West African producers.

“These are the low-hanging fruits our government can take and say, ‘Let us do more value addition.’ If you do the value addition, that will not only create jobs, but at the same time your export and processed food export will become high,” he said.

Meanwhile, Economist at Wilmar Agribusiness Nigeria Limited, Mahdi Tahir, said policy inconsistency, inadequate funding and bureaucracy were limiting the ability of Nigeria’s agricultural research institutions to support the sector.

“Unfortunately, the policy makers have left… they make beautiful policies, but when it comes to implementation we are nowhere,” Tahir said.

He also called for patient capital for long-term agricultural investments, particularly cash crops such as palm oil and cashew, whose returns take several years.

Managing Director, Amo Byng Nigeria Limited, Dr Agboola Belgore, said Nigeria should balance export ambitions with domestic food and industrial needs.

He cited soybean as an example, saying the country’s estimated requirement was about two million metric tonnes, against domestic production of between one million and 1.3 million tonnes.

He said government should support private-sector investment in processing, storage and other parts of the value chain, while ensuring that export does not deprive local industries of raw materials.

For Sunbeth Global, Owoyemi Sunkanmi, meeting international requirements such as the European Union Deforestation Regulation, EUDR, also requires investment in farmer education and data.

He said the company had mapped almost 80 per cent of farms under its EUDR programmes in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, while training farmers and cooperatives on compliance.

Group Head, Transaction Banking Division, FirstBank, Mobolade Ojeahere, said financing must cover the entire value chain, from inputs and aggregation to processing and export.

“We’re able to look at data, weather patterns, the yield from certain arable areas, and put all of that into a model that enables us take bigger bets and support the sector,” he said.

Also speaking at the event , Director, Client Relations, Anglophone West Africa, Afreximbank, also stressed that the opportunity was not merely how much Nigeria produces, but how much value it retains.

“Growing cocoa is agriculture; converting cocoa into butter, powder, liquor, chocolates, and branded consumer products is industrialization,” the bank said.

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