The Minister for Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, has disclosed that Nigeria earned $900 million from coca in 2012.
He stated this during the national sensitization workshop of the project on Sanitary Standards Capacity Building in Africa in Abuja.
According to him, “The global market for cocoa is very huge, growing at an average of 3% per annum. Nigeria’s cocoa export has equally grown over the years by an average of 40% annually and a cumulative of 280% from $215m in 2006 to $822.8m from the export of cocoa and cocoa products last year.”
He added: “Nigeria is the world’s fourth largest producer and exporter of cocoa. Paradoxically, over 90% of the cocoa produced is exported. Our domestic consumption of this strategic commodity is barely 3%.”
Aganga disclosed that Cocoa is Nigeria’s second highest earner after Crude oil and generates over 2 million jobs.