Cavista Holds Stakeholder Workshop on Value Addition of Cassava in Nigeria
At the start of March 2025, Cavista Holding, in collaboration with Abgeyewa Farms, held a stakeholder workshop at Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort in Ekiti State with the aim to promote the Local Value Addition (#LVA) of cassava in Nigeria. The Workshop took place one day after Nigerian Minister of Agriculture Abubakar Kyari visited Agbeyema Farms.
At that same day, Minister Kyari also toured the Nigeria Agricultural Development Fund (NADF) and the Nigeria Cassava Industrialization Alliance (NCIA). The minister was accompanied from high officials from the Ekiti State Government.
During the Workshop, participants discussed financing, mechanization, logistics and beneficiation. By regrouping smallholders into cooperatives, access to credit, mechanization and technical assistance could be streamlined.
The Director of NADF, Nasir Ingawa, stressed access to financing as a bottleneck for the development of the cassava sub-sector. In order to address this issue, NADF will develop tailor-made financial packages to allow the modernization and upscaling of the sector.
Niyi Adebayo, Chief of Staff to the Ekiti State Governor, highlighted the Government efforts to make available more land for cultivation. Recently, 5,000 hectares have been cleared and placed into the pool. The State is particularly encouraging the youth to engage into agribusiness which is a respectful way to earn a living and will contribute to #FoodSecurity.
At the end of the workshop, an Acton Plan was elaborated with the following key points:
- Strengthen smallholder aggregation
- Scale up processing capacity
- Explore high-value products from cassava such as cassava flour and bioethanol
- Improve logistics and market access
- Facilitate investment and development at policy level
Cavista Holdings is the owner of Agbeyewa Farms and has as its roadmap to develop cultivation on an area of 100,000 hectares. It is worth recalling that on the margins of the US-Africa Business Summit 2024 (#UABS2024), Cavista Chairman John Olajide and Ekiti State Governor Abiodun Oyebanji signed an MoU to foster the transformation of the agriculture sector.
The NCIA outlined its strategic roadmap to drive investment, both local and foreign, into the cassava business. It plans to mobilize USD 300 million, which it hopes will unlock more than USD one billion in value creation.
Nigeria ambitions to become a leading country in Africa for the production and processing of cassava. Indeed, cassava is the staple food of numerous African states and Nigeria has the size to take a big bite into the continental market pie.