Africa grows about 70 percent of global cocoa yet it captures only a fraction of the value of $150 billion chocolate market.
Experts who spoke during the LEAF AFRICA webinar, highlighted the opportunities and structural gaps across Africa’s cocoa value chain.
They also noted that the continent can move beyond exporting raw beans to building globally competitive value chains to benefit from the potential of the commodity.
Uzoamaka Igweike, founder of Loom Craft Chocolate, identified weak infrastructure as one of the major constraints limiting value addition.
‘A batch of chocolate can take anywhere between 18 hours to 60 hours of stable electricity to run effectively,’ she said. She also emphasised the lack of developed cold-chain logistics for distribution.
Poor power supply is a major challenge to Africa manufacturers and this has forced them to rely heavily on diesel and gas to power their factories, and the prices of both commodities have surged over 100 percent in recent months owing to the Iran war.
Energy accounts for 30-40 per of production costs for manufacturers like cement, steel, and food processing. That makes African goods more expensive than imports from Asia, the U.S., and Europe.
Nigerian manufacturers spent N1.4 trillion on power generation in 2025, underscoring the heavy cost burden it continues to impose on the sector.
Nkechi Amangbo, CEO of Thamani Invest Limited, said low quality beans and high cost of capital are other constraints Africa’s chocolate makers battle with. She added that interest rates of between 30-40 percent make manufacturing projects difficult to finance across the continent.
She also stressed that processors cannot afford interruptions caused by unreliable supply of quality beans.
Speaking on opportunities, Amangbo pointed that the challenges highlighted by operators creates opportunities for investors and entrepreneurs.
‘These are outright business opportunities,’ she said. ‘I would be willing to finance businesses that impacts the real sector and creates employment,’ she said
She also identified equipment leasing as a viable model. ‘Instead of requiring processors to purchase every machine, specialised firms could acquire and lease equipment, with financiers structuring the capital around proven demand.’
Speaking on the shifting demands of the international market, Ahmed Adeagbo,managing director of Rosad Nigeria Limited noted that buyers now want clear information on the origin of cocoa and the conditions under which it was produced.
‘Global buyers are placing greater emphasis on traceability. They want to know where it’s coming from. They want to know how sustainable it is,’ he said.
‘The European Union has introduced a regulation known as the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Under this rule, cocoa that comes from land deforested after 2020 would be rejected.’He explained.
‘About 90 per cent of Nigeria’s cocoa is sold to the European market, exporters must now prove that their beans meet these requirements.’
‘This means they have to map the farms, collect data on each plot, and provide a statement confirming that the cocoa was produced without deforestation.’
He added that the cost of mapping farms and meeting these requirements currently falls largely on the exporters.