The Nigerian Presidency through Sunday Dare, CON, Special Adviser, Media & Public Communication/Spokesperson to President Bola Tinubu, posted on social media an article titled ‘Cocoa Boom of 2024’.
The article exposes “the silent agricultural revolution taking place under President Bola Tinubu”, adding, “there should be no hunger”.
Sunday Dare posted
Ebi Onipawa
In this rare piece below , Tope Fashua takes us from the productive grain fields of Birni Gwari and other northern parts to the Cocoa fields of the South West exposing the silent agricultural revolution taking place under President Bola Tinubu. There should be no hunger.
Ebinpawa: What about the cocoa boom of 2024? by Tope Fashua
This article is focused on what’s going on with cocoa alone. Across the land, there are so many other crops that sometimes sprout wildly but are worth fortunes.
TOPE Fasua
…the question we should ask ourselves, especially in South-West Nigeria is, “How can we abandon our farms, become city rats and say ‘ebinpawa’?” Is it not so obvious now that there may be more urban than rural poverty in Nigeria, and that the abandonment of our natural endowments – this time around cocoa farming – is inimical to our own progress?
Do we have to lease out our farms and look down on what our grandfathers planted while chasing golden fleeces everywhere, including abroad? Why do we equate farming with poverty? I noticed his accent. This guy must be from Ondo State.
I have a keen ear for accents from all over Nigeria and even beyond. But I usually like to engage folks from my end of the woods in Lagos, and to find out about their journeys so far.
Of course he is from Ondo town proper, he told me. I joked with him about how lucky he was that he wasn’t given the Number 11 tribal marks that is indigenous to Ondo town – apart from the love for 404 (go figure). He laughed as he shook his head, rejecting the suggestion that his face be carved up like they used to do in times past.
I glanced at his rather handsome ‘yellow’ face, imagining how the tribal marks would have sat. I then asked why – like me – he abandoned Ondo State for Lagos or elsewhere. He parried the question, but I could deduce that it was all about chasing down the Benjamins, like the Americans like to put it. Everyone wants improvement, don’t we?
The conversation with my Bolt Driver as we headed out of the local airport towards Ikorodu Road swivelled to the Cocoa boom of year 2024. I informed him that this year may even be better for cocoa growers and merchants because there is some drought in Cote d’Ivoire.
Nigeria, through its cocoa growers and sellers made $2.8 billion in 2024, up from $800 million the year before. Very little of this sector is driven by government, if any.
This means that potentially all that money went into our people’s pockets. I told the guy that if they have cocoa in his family, he should keep an eye on it.
I informed him that many corporate guys left their jobs last year to go back to their family cocoa plantations and many are doing well. One 100-kilogramme bag of cocoa beans sold for an average of N1.4 million.
The guy was aghast. He said his dad had a cocoa farm back in Ondo town, but they had rented out the farm. I said it’s the renter that’s enjoying today. He said he would call his dad and ask if it was true that Cocoa had come into so much money.
The energetic young Bolt driver fell into a melancholic silence as he shook his head slowly from side to side, as if in regret.
Before then, as our discussion took shape, I called my cousin in Ondo State to ask what had happened to our family’s cocoa farm at Ita Oniyan, Akure, Ondo State. He said most of the trees are dead and people have started building in and around the old farm. I noticed how overgrown the farm had become when he took me there like 10 years ago.
My cousin confirmed that a kilogramme of cocoa sold for like N1,400 (that’s N1.4 million per bag, as mentioned above). We discussed how we can revive the farms. He said last year many people in Ondo State started running around to see how they could revive their cocoa farms when the prices suddenly spiked.
I recalled some guys pointing to a truck as it left Idanre, Ondo State, filled with cocoa bags, quipping that that was N600 million in the full truck.
EBI ONIPAWA.
— Sunday Dare,CON (@SundayDareSD) June 9, 2025
In this rare piece below , Tope Fashua takes us from the productive grain fields of Birni Gwari and other northern parts to the Cocoa fields of the South West exposing the silent agricultural revolution taking place under President Bola Tinubu. There should be no… pic.twitter.com/F8zVYDIofF
