The House of Representatives has called for Nigeria’s return to large-scale production of cocoa, bringing Nigeria back on top of the list of cocoa exporting countries.
Following the statement, the House has mandated its Committee on Agricultural Production and Services to come together with The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to “review all existing cocoa/commodity laws and develop a National Cocoa Policy to reposition the country as the largest producer in Africa and its recognizable position in the world.”
The committee is to report back within four weeks for further legislative action.
A member of the House, Ademorin Kuye, had moved a motion titled ‘Need to Review the Cocoa Production Policy of the Country,’ which the lawmakers unanimously adopted at the plenary on Tuesday.
Moving the motion, Kuye recalled that Nigeria was once a major player in cocoa production, being the second-largest producer in the world with 450,000 tons, and the country’s top foreign exchange earner in the 1950s and 1960s before the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities in the 1970s.
The lawmakers also noted that the Nigerian cocoa market crashed in the 1990s as production fell to 170,000 tons and was impacted by the Structural Adjustment Program policies of the late 1980s, which included the dissolution of cocoa marketing board to liberalize cocoa marketing trade and allow improved cocoa output and pricing.
