Nigeria can earn $10bn yearly from cashew industry, says NCAN

Nigeria stands to earn as much as $10 billion annually from the cashew industry if appropriate policies, strategic investments, and effective value-addition measures are implemented, the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) has said.

The National President of NCAN, Dr Ojo Joseph Ajanaku, made this known during a press briefing in Abuja ahead of the forthcoming Nigeria Cashew Day.

He said Nigeria has the landmass, human resources, and market access required to become a major global player in cashew production and processing, but is held back by weak policy frameworks, poor data management, and inadequate local processing capacity.

Ajanaku explained that the Nigeria Cashew Day initiative, launched in Benin in 2023, was designed to convene stakeholders across the entire value chain from farmers and processors to marketers and service providers to highlight the enormous but largely untapped potential of the sector.

He said the event, which moved to Enugu in 2024 and Lagos in 2025, is scheduled to hold in Abuja in 2026 to allow direct engagement with the federal government at the highest level.

“Our aim is to have a national cashew policy that is owned by Nigerians, not one imposed by external interests. We want a policy that protects the industry, promotes organic cashew, and allows us to fully own what we produce,” Ajanaku said.

He noted that while Nigeria has about 92 million hectares of land with over 34 million hectares of arable land currently unused, it still lags behind countries like Côte d’Ivoire, which has a far smaller landmass but records higher cocoa and cashew output.

“With proper harnessing, the Nigerian cashew industry can create jobs for over 50 million Nigerians. There is nothing lacking; we have the land, the population, and the financial capacity to be the number one cashew producer in the world,” he said.

Ajanaku emphasised the need for Nigeria to go beyond raw production and become a major processing hub, warning that exporting unprocessed cashew nuts results in huge losses in revenue, employment, and foreign exchange.

He expressed concern that many top cashew-producing states do not have processing plants, pointing to Kogi State as an example.

“Kogi is one of the leading cashew-producing states in Nigeria, yet it has no single cashew factory. If factories are located in producing areas, our children will be employed, and rural economies will grow,” he said.

The NCAN president urged state governments to provide incentives that would attract investors to establish processing facilities, while also encouraging local entrepreneurs to invest in their states of origin.

He also decried the lack of reliable production data, noting that Nigeria currently depends on export figures to estimate its cashew output.

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“We don’t have the correct statistical structure to determine how many cashews we produce. Worse still, a large volume of cashew leaves the country without records, as exporters bypass official procedures to avoid repatriating proceeds,” he said.

According to NCAN, officially documented exports from the last season exceeded 400,000 metric tonnes, valued at about $700 million, although the actual volume is believed to be significantly higher.

Ajanaku said Nigeria could increase production to more than 2 million metric tonnes annually within five years, and possibly surpass 4 million tonnes in the long term.

“At a conservative price of $1,500 per tonne, producing 2 million tonnes would generate $3 billion, excluding by-products,” he explained.

He further highlighted the economic value of cashew by-products such as Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL) and residue cake, which are often wasted locally but sell for about 95 cents per kilogram on the international market.

“If we process what we produce locally and fully exploit the value chain, Nigeria can earn a minimum of $10 billion annually from the cashew industry,” he said.

He, however, noted that the upcoming Nigeria Cashew Day would be used to demonstrate to global investors that Nigeria is ready to do business and capable of taking a leading role in the international cashew market, provided the right policy choices are made.