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ICCO tasks Nigeria on $400m Cocoa Fund

By on August 18, 2015

The International Cocoa Organisations (ICCO) wants Nigeria to benefit from the  $400 million it has sourced from international financiers to improve cocoa production among its member countries.

According to the ICCO Executive Director, Jean-Marc Anga, who made the appeal to Nigeria, the country stood in very good stead in drawing from the fund, given its strategic importance as one of the major cocoa – growing nations, not just in Africa, but in the world.

Anga spoke in Calabar, during a three-day seminar with the theme: “Implementation Meeting of the Cocoa Price Risk Management Project” organised by the Cocoa Association of Nigeria (CAN), in collaboration with the ICCO, Agence Francaise De Development (AFC), and the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.

Addressing participants at the event at the weekend, Anga said: “A few months ago, the ICCO secretariat in his efforts to secure additional financial resources for its member countries, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the African cocoa sector.

These considerable resources are to be used in the following lines of activities: “To increase value-added cocoa production; To promote chocolate consumption;To empower women in the cocoa value chain; To develop profitable cocoa farming models;To improve access to credit and; To increase market access.

“These project activities will be implemented in major cocoa producing countries in Africa and therefore in Nigeria.”

Anga disclosed that Nigeria has benefited immensely in term of support for cocoa by associating with the ICCO since 1973 as a full member of the organisation.
“Through its membership of the ICCO, Nigeria has benefited, among others, from ten major development projects. Each of these projects have tackled specific issues and challenges faced by the Nigerian cocoa sector, namely, farm management practice, market access, competitiveness and price risk management. The latter is the subject of the current project.

“The Nigerian benefits stemming from these ICCO projects were outstanding. Through its involvement in ICCO projects over the years, Nigeria received nearly $US 40 million for a local contribution of almost $US 3.9 million. You will agree with me that this is a rather handsome rate of returns.”

Anga said: “The future of Cocoa is bright” stating that by his projection, there will be a deficit of 1 million tonnes of cocoa globally by 2020,” stating that producers of cocoa-based products would place more demand for cocoa growers internationally.

He stated that at the moment Nigeria’s capacity to grow cocoa stood at 350,000 metric tonnes annually, while Cote de Ivoire annual production stood at 1.7million metric tonnes annually.

He said there was every need for Nigeria to increase its cocoa production capacity, but stressed that such will depend a lot on government’s policy direction.
Making his contribution, the Executive Director, Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, Ibadan, Professor Malachy Akoroda, said cocoa remains the nation’s highest foreign exchange earner outside crude oil.

Akoroda said cocoa is a major commodity in Nigeria as indicted by available records of income generation index of the country.

He said for last year alone, out of $US 2.4 billion earned from the non-oil exports by Nigeria, cocoa alone contributed $US 666.45 million, being 27.7 per cent of the nation’s earnings from agricultural produce and solid minerals sector.

“What is important is that cocoa remains number one on the non-oil export in Nigeria,” he said.

Akoroda said, if the federal government provides the necessary support for cocoa farmers, cocoa would overtake oil as a major non-oil export for Nigeria.
The CAN National President, Sayina Riman, who is also the Vice-President, World Cocoa Producers Organisation (WCPO), said the cocoa market in Nigeria has suffered in the last few years, hence the importance of the workshop.

Riman said the ability of cocoa farmers to comprehend and prepare adequately for changes in pricing of the commodity would determine their success in cocoa business.

Riman said cocoa holds a lot of economic and health benefits because of its “vigour and vitality to the human body.”

 

[ThisDay]