The Bank of Industry (BOI) has secured a €60 million credit facility from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to accelerate cocoa value addition in Nigeria, with the financing targeted at cocoa processing, ingredient manufacturing, packaging and chocolate production.
The Managing Director of BOI, Olasupo Olusi, announced the facility on Tuesday at the Cocoa Value Addition Summit in Abuja, themed “From Bean to Brand.”
Olusi said the funding forms part of the bank’s broader strategy to mobilise blended and concessional financing for Nigeria’s cocoa sector while addressing the high cost of capital faced by local processors.
“An example of this is the €60 million credit facility we received from the European Investment Bank to develop the cocoa sector,” he said.
“This will help Nigerian processors compete more fairly with multinationals that have access to cheaper finance.”
He said the BOI would establish dedicated financing windows for cocoa processing, ingredient manufacturing, packaging and chocolate production as part of efforts to deepen local value addition.
Olusi also disclosed that the bank is exploring the establishment of a Cocoa Value Addition Park in Nigeria’s cocoa-producing belt. The proposed park will feature shared processing facilities, quality laboratories, reliable power supply, effluent treatment systems and digital traceability infrastructure to support the industry’s growth.
“We are not approaching cocoa as a lending programme; we are building an industrial ecosystem,” he said.
“Our goal is to finance everything from nurseries and cooperatives to grinding plants, ingredient factories, packaging lines and chocolate manufacturers.”
According to him, financing models for the cocoa industry must reflect the sector’s realities, noting that cocoa replanting requires grace periods of between three and five years, while processing plants need long-term financing of seven to 10 years—capital that commercial banks rarely provide.
Highlighting the bank’s interventions in agribusiness, Olusi said BOI disbursed more than N164 billion to over 3,500 agro-processing and food businesses in 2025. He said the financing supported factories, mills, packhouses and cold-chain projects, while integrating nearly 48,000 smallholder farmers into industrial value chains.
Despite producing more than 300,000 metric tonnes of cocoa annually, Nigeria currently has an effective grinding capacity of only about 50,000 tonnes, he noted.
Olusi said expanding domestic processing capacity could increase the country’s export value by between two and four times, while creating jobs and reducing dependence on exports of raw cocoa beans.
“The goal is industrialisation, import substitution through local cocoa powder production, export promotion of butter and liquor to ECOWAS and the Gulf, and job creation for young Nigerians,” he said.
“For at the Bank of Industry, we hold to a simple conviction: we are not in the business of financing commodities. We are in the business of financing value creation.”
Also speaking at the summit, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Chris Isokpunwu, said more than 80 per cent of Nigeria’s cocoa is still exported as raw beans despite the country’s processing potential.
Represented by the ministry’s Director of Industrial Development, Mohammed Bala, Isokpunwu said expanding local processing would increase export earnings, create jobs and stimulate downstream industries, including confectionery, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
The Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Ransford Abbey, urged African cocoa-producing countries to prioritise domestic processing to capture more value from the global cocoa industry.
Abbey said Africa produces about 75 per cent of the world’s cocoa but earns less than 10 per cent of the value generated by the global chocolate industry.
“This system cannot continue. We must shift the paradigm from exporting raw poverty to creating refined wealth right here on the African continent,” he said.
Also addressing the summit, Massino Deluko, representative of the European Union, reaffirmed the bloc’s commitment to supporting cocoa value addition in Nigeria and called on governments to provide the policy and regulatory environment needed to attract greater investment into the sector.
Boluwatife Enome
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