President of the Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria and Chief Executive Officer of Farmers Agro Investment Ltd, Adeola Adegoke, speaks to ARINZE NWAFOR about how Nigeria needs political will in leadership to secure the future of the cocoa industry and improve farmers’ welfare
How should the National Cocoa Management Board, okayed by the Presidency but awaiting Senate approval, function successfully?
The model of not being involved in sales but in regulations will make it successful.
I’m a cocoa farmer and a leader among cocoa farmers here in Nigeria and across Africa. I can always point out that there are gaps in the Nigerian industry. These gaps can only be addressed if we have a regulatory board that will be involved in resolving some of these issues comprehensively.
For example, in Nigeria, we have a cocoa plant. What are some of those plants? What kind of national agenda do we have about cocoa production across the cocoa-producing states? What kind of varieties? How do we continue to finance research on drought-resistant varieties and make them available for our farmers? Those are some of the most important issues for the board.
In terms of post-harvest processes, how do you scale to ensure Nigeria continues to produce the finest premium cocoa? How do you enforce regulations to prevent unscrupulous people from using pesticides that are banned and are inimical? How do you bring an end to child labour in the cocoa industry?
There is also the leadership issue of who will be in charge of national coordination to tackle deforestation issues and boost investment opportunities for the youths venturing into the cocoa industry. There will be structures of incentivisation and land acquisitions and management that enforce it.
What do you need on the farmers’ end?
A lot of things are involved. How to ensure the market forces do not become an albatross in the future for our cocoa? How do we strengthen our community cooperative societies? How do we develop infrastructure when there are no adequate roads or clinics?
Sometimes you can’t locate schools for the children of these farmers. We have to be deliberate about these things to accomplish them through the NCMB. So, we are looking at a board that will create a conducive atmosphere.
We have issues with contracts; some people run away with other people’s money in this industry. Who enforces contracts? Who protects investors and restores confidence in the industry?
In the last three years, we have stagnated because the fundamentals have not been tackled. We are not coordinated. Nigeria needs an accurate policy framework and a political will to implement the policies. We need a board with this mandate to solve some of these issues. The board does not need to be involved in buying and selling.
We need a board to incentivise youth and organise the sector and tackle sustainability issues. It has to provide leverage, in terms of financial instruments, to enable cocoa farmers and buyers to access finance. The board has a big mandate to change the narratives.
How feasible is the NCMB’s plan to grow 500,000 metric tonnes of cocoa from the current 280,000 to 300,000 range?
It is the simplest thing to do for sustainability. It is amazing how viable most states are in terms of cocoa production. Amazingly, we have about 22 states that can drive cocoa commercially. What Ondo and Cross River States are doing is massive.
It is achievable if we have a national agenda that permeates the state and local governments. Don’t forget that the farmlands we are discussing don’t miss out at the state level.
So that is why at the board level, the states are critical stakeholders at that board level. If we have a national agenda, it will stipulate how many hectares of land we are going for, what yields are expected of them, and what varieties to drive our aspiration. These are things that can push the growth agenda and make it achievable.
It is the duty of this board to create an enabling environment and ease of doing business. Of course, it will be private-sector driven, but the board must enable opportunities.
There are about 22 states in Nigeria where the soil is very rich to ensure that cocoa grows better. When it’s well rehabilitated without even extending the existing land, we will definitely get 500,000 metric tonnes in the next one to two years. Many farms need rehabilitation, restocking, pruning, maintenance and weeding.
We need to substitute the number of aged trees with new ones through grafting. And scientifically, when you do grafting, you might not even need to cut it off. Cocoa farmers find it difficult to cut their cocoa trees, no matter what. Many of the farms in the Southwest are aged. Those aged trees are producing less.
How do you manage them?
So, what we need is grafting; it’s adding another scion, and it germinates and starts with that new stalk. But these things can only be done if the research institute is well-funded.
The equipment and facilities they need must also be there. As long as the research institutes are also battling underfunding, just know that the farms are facing a similar challenge.
We can ask each state to open a new 50,000 or 60,000 hectares. That’s a mandate. But I’m still telling you that the existing ones now, if they are well rehabilitated, and those agronomic practices are carried out, in the next two years we will be at 500,000 metric tonnes.
How did you contribute to the development of the NCMB?
Recall that during the Obafemi Awolowo era, he did a lot of things, from free education to establishing prominent infrastructure, like the first television station in Africa, the first radio station, and the Cocoa House, which were achieved through cocoa proceeds.
Cocoa has been contributing to the government of Nigeria, whether at the federal or state levels. When oil came in the 1970s, we realised that after oil, it was also cocoa. So it has always been pari passu. Then in 1986, the game changed with the abolition of the Cocoa Board, which was entirely throwing the baby out with the bad water.
What do you mean by bad water?
At the time, Nigeria was almost the second-highest producer of cocoa in the world. And Nigeria was also known to be producing the finest cocoa, and so forth.
We had a problem: the abolished cocoa board was doing a lot in terms of productivity, production, incentivisation, input, processing, and other things – practices that made sure that Nigerian cocoa was very distinct from West African.
But the issue of price manipulations that subjected the livelihood of our farmers to make them go into penury was exactly that, shortchanging; the corruption destroyed the cocoa board. So rather than leaving the aspect of that marketing, the whole developmental initiative architecture was scrapped. That’s what I meant by throwing the baby out with the bad water.
Since then, the Nigerian cocoa industry has been on autopilot. This means that the farmers’ lives and welfare have been left on their own. It also means that there are no rules and regulations, nor are there promotions, nor a regulatory framework. There is no way to track the industry from one ministry.
On productions, you are likely to go to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. When it comes to the issue of trading, you are likely to go to the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment. When you need promotion, you are likely to go to the Nigerian Export Promotion Council; or for funding, you’re likely going to Nexim Bank.
It is an arrangement without much coordination. If you are interested in cocoa, you are likely to be looking for areas where you can actually come in, and it does not help our targets.
We do not have targets, so the farmers continue to be poorer. The farmers have been left with a lot of regulations, even international standards.
That is what I mean when I say that abolishing the cocoa board in 1986 was a great mistake. It was a mistake in the sense that the developmental initiatives of the board should have been preserved, and only certain aspects should have been removed.
So, this was actually the journey. After 1986, Nigeria’s cocoa started coming down. We were having a lot of issues with poor quality and could not compete with Ghana. We cannot compete with the Ivory Coast, which produces about 2.5 million metric tonnes.
Ghana went as far as producing close to 1.1 million metric tonnes over the past two years, but they were down by a 500,000 deficit due to the Cacao Swollen Shoot Virus, which has cut down their production.
That has been the trajectory of the cocoa sector. In the past, you could tell the extent of prosperity when you looked at the most beautiful upstairs anywhere, and if you enquired, you would learn that it was built by a cocoa farmer. But then the farmers were being shortchanged, and that was what led to the outcry.
Are you implying that people on the cocoa board were manipulating prices, causing farmers to suffer?
The price was going up in the international market, and they were just manipulating it, buying at a low margin. It was not commensurate, and the farmers suffered the effects.
Pricing that was not in line with the international market was exactly what I meant by this. I mean this as an example of corruption.
Having seen some obstacles in the industry, my leadership at the cocoa farmers’ level organised the first private sector-driven cocoa summit in 2021. We called all stakeholders together, especially to tell them that there is a regulation called the European Union Deforestation Regulation, which specifies certain standards for cocoa operators and farmers to adhere to. We must adhere to sustainable practices that guarantee our market now and in the future.
This was what we discussed at that level. We agreed that the absence of a regulatory framework led to the present situation of not preparing Nigeria for the regulatory take-off.
Not taking action could affect the sales of Nigerian cocoa in the European Union market. We came up with a communique, and my leadership brought it to the former President Muhammadu Buhari.
We did a communique and sent it to the National Assembly, did a lot of press releases, and held press conferences. These are verifiable facts. We told them what we need now is the regulatory framework that will drive the industry and will combat some of those challenges that have dropped our productivity and quality.
People did all manner of things which could threaten our future for not complying with some regulatory rules.
The EU buys two-thirds of the cocoa, Nigerian cocoa and African cocoa; those are the things we mentioned. To the glory of God, we had a meeting at the National Assembly.
A lawmaker at the National Assembly also moved a motion based on the press conference that I held. I presented facts that Nigeria would lose if our cocoa were banned. When the lawmakers estimated, how do we survive as cocoa farmers? How can our country survive with the deficit of foreign exchange we are still grappling with? They called the Ministry of Agriculture to ask what our demand was.
I demanded on behalf of my association that we cannot continue to leave the industry on autopilot, because, number one, it exposes our farmers to different manipulations.
Manipulations in terms of an exorbitant increment in input and output. Sometimes, when the input is higher, it affects the output in the sense that agriculture is about business. And if you are having a high cost, definitely your profit margin will be reduced.
Added to all manners of underhanded practice of price undermining and contract breaching. Also, Nigeria has stagnated between 280,000 and 300,000 metric tonnes as of today.
Are people still engaging in these practices?
Yes, these things are still happening. Nigeria has stagnated, and it is unacceptable, seeing the way others have moved.
Moreover, the regulations being put forward by the EU, which entered into force in 2023, state that cocoa tainted with deforestation will not be accepted. These are the things we raised, and we were invited by the ministry to defend. We cited some of those developmental initiatives that have been taken by Ghana and the Ivory Coast. So the minister said, OK, let’s travel to Ghana.
We went with a delegation which included the Executive Director of the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria. We went to Ghana, and I sponsored myself and one of the delegates from Ogun State. Meanwhile, others used government money to visit.
The officials realised that what I said was actually true. After we returned from the trip, they met and gave a presentation to the minister. And he said on that basis that there should be a committee called the National Cocoa Management Committee, which he inaugurated. I was supposed to be a member of that committee.
When did this happen, in 2021 or 2022?
In 2022. I was representing all the cocoa farmers in Nigeria. So, it was a high-level committee. Afterwards, we realised that there was no funding for the committee. The committee was just a caricature; I mean, it was just there. No funding, nothing whatsoever, until President Buhari left.
The current president, Bola Tinubu, came on and said that one of his mandates was that he was going to set up boards for categories of commodities. But nothing happened thereafter.
So, I went again. I moved back, and I wrote to him on the issue of EUDR, where they wrote to all EU market countries that the regulation is going to be enforced in 2023.
I wrote to the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Food in Brussels about many efforts of my associations that control the largest cocoa farmers in Nigeria. In making sure that we align ourselves with practices that are in tandem with the regulatory framework to make sure that there is no child labour on our farms, in cocoa communities in Nigeria.
And this is in partnership with the International Labour Organisation, with so many organisations that are involved in child labour. And on the issue of deforestation, to make sure that our farmers are not entering the reserved forestry to start to farm cocoa anyhow. That there is responsible cocoa production.
We continue to build capacity, training, and advocacy among our farmers in conjunction with so many of these stakeholders. With the private exporters, all sorts of reputable chocolatiers, equitable exporters, and processors are in Nigeria.
And that we have been doing a lot in land management, which we also call cocoa agroforestry. To make sure that cocoa is maintained with forests to preserve the agroecology of our farms. And that these are done with the Food and Agriculture Organisation and so many other U.S. government initiatives in Nigeria. I quoted all these statistics because they are realistic statistics. And it was quoted on this page.
What did you achieve through these advocacy efforts?
It was based on this effort from the government and the private sectors that we could convince the EU to temper justice with mercy. Considering that, if anything, it is the farmers who are not even much aware due to the absence of a regulatory framework in Nigeria that will be affected. That thousands of livelihoods will be affected. And to God be the glory, it was shifted to 2025.
We returned to face the Nigerian government again. We wrote an open letter to President Tinubu, alerting him to the danger of not acting.
We explained what had happened in the past, where we are today and what we are trying to achieve. The ministry set up a committee without funding and maintained that we did not need a committee but a board.
We need a board that can actually drive cocoa. And we quoted the statistics that, as of today, cocoa is contributing to the national GDP. And at the same time, in terms of foreign exchange, these things have been harmed for so many years. And it continues. And this thing is going.
If you look at the values of cocoa, as of the first quarter of this year, from the National Bureau of Statistics and the Central Bank of Nigeria, you’d be amazed. These are the competitive advantages that we have in Nigeria. There is no other commodity that has performed more than cocoa.
And these are the statistics we quoted for President Tinubu. We said that if it could be done, it would solve some of the problems we’re having.
The decreasing production can be tackled. The poor quality of cocoa that Nigeria is presently producing, which sometimes affects our exporters and buyers, will stop.
One of the things that my leadership suggested is that we want a board that will be for regulations, development, centralisation and protection but will not be involved in buying and selling. That is the kind of model that my leadership pushed for.
Do you claim these accomplishments?
What you are seeing today is the outcome of my leadership, which I have been in since 2021. Nobody can lay claim to it. We have been advocating for the Cocoa Board in Nigeria.
Our deal is to make sure that the interests of our farmers are protected, because if the producers continue with these sustainability issues without having to overcome some of the challenges, it will affect them.
