Business
BOI to channel 70% of €85m EIB facility to drive Nigeria’s cocoa, dairy sectors
Nigeria’s foremost development finance institution, the Bank of Industry (BOI), has secured a €60 million credit facility from the European Investment Bank to fund Nigeria’s cocoa and dairy value-addition drive, with a focus on processing, ingredients, and chocolate manufacturing.
The Managing Director/CEO of BOI, Olasupo Olusi, disclosed this on Tuesday, during the Africa Cocoa Summit convened in Abuja by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
With the summit, the ministry aims to transition Africa from exporting raw beans to local processing and branding.
Also known as the Cocoa Value Addition Summit, with the theme ‘From Bean to Brand,’ it was attended by leaders and stakeholders from Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon, who signed the Abuja Declaration to establish the Cocoa Value Addition Alliance (CVAA).
According to Mr Olusi, the €60 million forms part of the €85 million EIB–BOI facility, backed by the European Union under the Global Gateway initiative, and designed specifically to strengthen these critical sectors in Nigeria.
The BOI chief said the cocoa value chain initiative provides livelihoods for thousands of Nigerians, aims to enhance productivity, value addition, and market linkages that will directly improve the incomes of farmers and processors in the country.
“This agreement reinforces the Bank of Industry’s commitment to unlocking long-term, affordable finance for priority sectors that drive inclusive growth.
“Approximately 70 per cent of the €85 million financing facility will be channeled to Nigeria’s cocoa and dairy sectors, which BOI considers among the industries with the greatest potential to create jobs and retain foreign exchange earnings.”
“We are particularly focused on cocoa value chains, which provide livelihoods for thousands of Nigerians. Through this initiative, we aim to enhance productivity, value addition, and market linkages that will directly improve the incomes of farmers and processors,” Mr Olusi said.
The BOI MD said that the bank would prioritise lending to processors, cooperatives, and MSMEs that add value locally, rather than only to traders exporting raw beans.
He added that the era of celebrating volume of raw exports must end, as Nigeria loses billions by shipping beans and importing finished chocolate.
According to him, the goal is to create factories around cocoa communities so that value, jobs, and taxes remain in Nigeria.
Technical assistance
However, Mr Olusi noted that financing alone is not enough, and as such, BOI will complement the loans with technical assistance on compliance, climate standards, and access to the EU market.
BOI, he said, will also support farmers and processors to meet the EU Deforestation Regulation and other international environmental and social standards.
Citing BOI’s track record, Mr Olusi said the bank disbursed over ₦164 billion in 2025 to more than 3,500 agro and food-processing businesses.
The support financed factories, mills, packhouses, and cold chains, and linked nearly 48,000 smallholder farmers into industrial value chains, he stated.
The BOI boss said the new financing would target the entire ecosystem, from nurseries and farmer cooperatives to grinding plants, ingredient factories, packaging lines, and chocolate manufacturers.
Cocoa value addition
Speaking also at the summit, President Bola Tinubu, who was represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, called for a decisive shift from Africa’s long-standing dependence on exporting raw cocoa beans.
Mr Tinubu urged the stakeholders of the producing countries to prioritise value addition and capture a larger share of the global chocolate industry’s wealth.
He noted that although Africa accounts for about 70 per cent of global cocoa production, the continent retains only six cents of every dollar generated by the global chocolate industry.
Mr Tinubu stressed that Nigeria was committed to processing more of its cocoa locally, expanding chocolate manufacturing, building indigenous brands, and competing more effectively in international markets, rather than continuing to export raw cocoa beans.
According to the president, cocoa value addition remains a key component of his Renewed Hope Agenda and the country’s broader industrialisation strategy.
He further disclosed that investors are developing a 70,000-tonne cocoa processing facility in Shagamu, Ogun State, while Nigeria’s cocoa grinding capacity has already surpassed 120,000 tonnes annually.
One-trillion-dollar economy
Earlier at the summit, the, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Jumoke Oduwole, said the summit aligns with the Federal Government’s ambition of building a one-trillion-dollar economy by 2030.
She observed that despite Nigeria’s significant contribution to global cocoa production, the country continues to earn only a small fraction of the value created across the cocoa value chain.
According to Ms Oduwole, the FG is promoting greater value addition through manufacturing incentives, inves,tment promotion and stronger collaboration among relevant institutions.
The minister added that the government would also deepen market access by leveraging existing trade partnerships and opportunities under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), while encouraging investors to take advantage of regional and global value chains to unlock the sector’s full economic potential.
Cocoa Value Addition Alliance
Also speaking, the Minister of State for Industry, John Owan Enoh, described the summit as another milestone in implementing Nigeria’s Industrial Policy, and announced plans for the establishment of the Cocoa Value Addition Alliance, b,ringing together Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon, countries that collectively account for about 75 per cent of global cocoa production.
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According to Mr Enoh, the alliance is designed to strengthen regional cooperation, promote local processing, and enable producing countries to capture greater value from the global cocoa market.
“We are not here to disrupt existing partnerships but to expand them,” the Minister of State for Industry, Mr Enoh, said.
He urged African cocoa-producing nations to move beyond exporting raw beans and instead focus on developing branded cocoa products capable of competing successfully in global markets.
On his part, the Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Ransford Abbey, urged African cocoa-producing countries to deepen domestic processing.
“I am here to support the effort and commit to a joint effort towards increasing value for our hardworking cocoa farmers and our respective economies,” Mr Abbey said.
He said Africa produced about 75 per cent of the world’s cocoa but earned less than 10 per cent of the global chocolate industry’s wealth.
“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, adding that stronger regional collaboration, investment, and technology transfer will help African countries capture greater value from the global cocoa economy.
The Head of Cooperation of the European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Massimo De Luca, reiterated the importance of value addition in the cocoa value chain.
While expressing the support of the EU, Mr De Luca called on governments of the various countries to ensure they play their part in ensuring that a proper framework necessary for the success of the initiative was established and clarified.
The President Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Dele Alabi, has urged Nigerian banks to increase lending to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), in order to generate higher returns for banks after the industry recapitalisation.
Mr Alabi, who is also the CIBN’s Chairman of Council, stated this at the 2026 Fellowship Investiture of CIBN, held in Victoria Island, Lagos, on Saturday. The theme of the event was “Bank Recapitalisation: Leveraging New Bank Capital for Nigeria’s Industrial Transformation.”
He said the success of the banking sector recapitalisation exercise, which ended on 31 March, would depend on how effectively the new capital is deployed to support productive sectors of the economy.
Mr Alabi said banks needed to look beyond large corporations and expand financing to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which he described as critical to Nigeria’s economic growth and employment.
He said lending to MSMEs could be both secured and profitable if banks developed appropriate structures and infrastructure to manage the associated risks.
“Banks no longer have the luxury of focusing only on the top-tier sectors of the economy, on the Mobiles, on the Unilevers, on the Shells,” he said.
The CIBN boss added that the institute was planning its first MSME forum for 1 December, to advance practical solutions for improving access to finance and supporting enterprise growth.
Mr Alabi cited estimates that MSMEs account for about 46 per cent of Nigeria’s gross domestic product, constitute 96 per cent of businesses and generate 86 per cent of employment.
He also said the institute was considering the establishment of MSME hubs across states, drawing on models implemented in countries including China, India and the United Kingdom.
755 CIBN honorees
The CIBN President said the institute honoured 755 banking professionals for their contributions to the banking industry and Nigeria’s economic development.
The honourees comprised 18 honorary fellows, 460 elected fellows and 277 honorary senior members.
Among the distinguished honorary fellows honored at three events Samuel Egube, Deputy Chief of Staff, Lagos State, Folorunsho Alakija, Vice Chairman of Famfa Oil Limited, Tokunbo Talabi, Secretary to the Ogun State Government; and Olubunmi Kuku, Managing Director/Chief Executive of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria.
Mr Alabi said their achievements, leadership and dedication had helped advance the banking profession and contributed to the country’s economic growth.
He also disclosed that the institute’s banking examinations were now conducted in 13 African countries: Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Liberia, Congo, Ghana, Botswana, Cameroon, Namibia, Zambia, Rwanda, Mali, Mozambique and Kenya.
He said Sierra Leone had the highest number of chartered bankers among the 13 countries, describing the institute’s growing international reach as evidence of its expanding relevance across Africa.
Affordable long-term financing
At the event, the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said the banking sector’s recapitalisation should strengthen lenders’ capacity to withstand economic pressures and finance larger transactions.
He said the real measure of success would be the extent to which the additional capital supported productive businesses, industrial expansion and economic opportunities for Nigerians.
“One of the greatest challenges facing Nigerian businesses remains access to affordable, long-term financing. We’ve been hearing this for 20, 25 years. And so we need to do something about it,” he said.
Mr Sanwo-Olu said manufacturers needed financing to acquire machinery, expand production and compete internationally, while agricultural businesses required capital to develop storage, processing and distribution capacity.
He also highlighted opportunities in infrastructure and electricity, noting that Lagos State’s electricity law could attract investment into the power sector and support manufacturing, logistics and trade.
The governor said the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund had supported more than 40,000 small businesses through grants and single-digit loans.
According to him, the initiative had also helped create between 200,000 and 250,000 jobs across the state.
Mr Sanwo-Olu urged banks, government and the private sector to move beyond increasing the availability of capital and focus on ensuring that the funds generated meaningful economic activity.
“We must move from simply having more capital available to making this capital work for our economy,” he said.
Credits’ concerns
The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Tayo Aduloju, also raised concerns over a one-third decline in bank credit to manufacturers since December 2024, urging lenders to channel more of their capital into productive sectors of the Nigerian economy.
Mr Aduloju said credit to manufacturers had fallen from N8.5 trillion in December 2024 to N5.6 trillion, despite the successful completion of the banking sector recapitalisation exercise.
According to the NESG chief, the increase in banks’ capital had not translated into the scale of financing needed to support industrial growth, with lending still concentrated in sectors such as oil and gas, finance and insurance.
ALSO READ: CIBN urges banks to deploy fresh capital to MSMEs as Nigeria targets $1 trillion economy
He said the two sectors accounted for about 46 per cent of bank credit, while manufacturing received only 8.7 per cent.
“Trade has overtaken manufacturing. So, ladies and gentlemen, we are financing import and distribution of goods more readily than their production in Nigeria,” he said.
Mr Aduloju said the cost of borrowing, liquidity constraints, lending risks and the short duration of available financing were among the major obstacles preventing businesses from accessing credit.
He noted that lending rates ranged from 19 per cent for prime borrowers to 32.6 per cent for other borrowers, while treasury bills offered returns of about 15.5 per cent without credit risk.
He also expressed concern over the growth in government borrowing, saying credit to the government increased by 63 per cent in the year to September.
“When the sovereign borrows at this pace, it’s not a competition with business. It’s no competition. Government will win,” he said.
Mr Aduloju argued that banks would need to work with government and regulators to reduce the risks associated with lending to productive sectors, particularly manufacturing, agriculture and small businesses.
He said Nigeria needed better-prepared investment projects, reliable infrastructure, clear regulatory frameworks and stronger credit guarantees to attract long-term financing.
He also urged the government to clean up the national asset register, saying the absence of properly documented and investment-ready projects was preventing financial institutions from financing some opportunities.
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