Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria have written an open letter to President Bola Tinubu, expressing concerns over the lack of funding for the cocoa industry.
The Director General of the Cocoa Roundtable Initiative and National President of Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria, Adeola Adegoke say the farmers have appealed to President Tinubu to prioritize funding for their sector in order not to reverse the present prosperity of the nation’s cocoa farmers.
Adegoke says funding has continuously affected the operations of the National Cocoa Management Committee and its responsibilities in the area of quality control, contract arbitration to safe guide investors funding, child labour monitoring and remediation.
The letter added that the performance of the cocoa sector in the last one year in the generation of FX and top earnings in the non-crude oil sector cannot be taken for granted, saying that according to the NBS report, cocoa exports rose by 304 per cent in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024 due to higher demand and weak naira.