Ayomiposi

Nigeria Produces. But Who Captures the Value? One of the underrated things about working in consulting is how much industry knowledge you accumulate along the way. Over the last few months, I have been directly involved in building financial models for businesses in the cassava and cocoa value chains. And it has been quite an experience. Take cassava. Most of us think: cassava → garri/fufu. But the value chain goes much further. Cassava can be processed into high quality cassava flour, industrial starch, ethanol, sorbitol, glucose syrup and animal feed, among other products. Then cocoa. We think: cocoa → chocolate. But cocoa beans can be processed into cocoa liquor, cocoa butter and cocoa powder, which then feed into chocolate, confectionery, beverages, cosmetics and other industries. Even some of the parts considered waste can have commercial applications. And it got me thinking: Who captures the value? The farmer producing the raw material? The processor? The manufacturer? The exporter? The further we move along the value chain, the more opportunities we create to capture additional value from the same raw material. So perhaps Nigeria should not only be asking: “How much cassava and cocoa can we produce?” But: “How much value can we capture from every tonne we produce?” Nigeria is already a major producer. The bigger opportunity, in my view, is moving from: Planting → Processing Commodities → Industrial inputs Production → Industrialisation Imagine being not just one of the largest producers of cassava and cocoa, but also a major producer and exporter of starch, sorbitol, ethanol, cocoa butter, cocoa powder, cocoa liquor, chocolate and other downstream products. That is where the real opportunity gets interesting. And ironically, this is what financial modelling has taught me. Sometimes you start by modelling the numbers and end up learning an entire industry.