Cassava Industrialisation: Nigeria’s Next Oil Boom Or Another False Start?

By OBIOMA TORI

24–48 Hours That Define a Value Chain

NIGERIA’S cassava economy is uniquely constrained by time. The crop must be processed within 24 to 48 hours after harvest, a factor that has exposed severe weaknesses in aggregation and supply coordination. According to Kabir Shagaya, Director of Strategy at Cavista Holdings, “Half of Nigeria’s cassava processing plants have gone moribund due to unreliable access to raw materials.”

Shagaya, whose firm owns Agbeyewa Farms in Ekiti State — Africa’s largest cassava farm — argued that industrialisation begins with securing inputs, not celebrating volumes. “There can be no industrialisation without farmers. Building farms around processing plants will ensure steady inputs and attract investors.”

The Cost of Doing Business vs Cost of Doing Imports

The economics of processing cassava industrially remains prohibitive. Analysts point to energy, diesel, logistics, and equipment costs as the largest determinants of final pricing. Consultant Shashikant Auti warned that cassava must be repositioned from a subsistence crop to a strategic industrial raw material. “Cassava’s perishability weakens farmers’ bargaining power. Guaranteed support, minimum pricing, and industrial demand stimulation are essential.”

What Nigeria Still Doesn’t Have

Despite Senate hearings and national declarations, stakeholders highlight missing pillars of competitiveness:

• A national cassava production database

• Centralised processing hubs

• Cluster-based primary processing centres

• Tractor-hiring and mechanisation support

• Tariffs on imported industrial starches

• Cassava-specific financing windows via state agricultural banks

Innovation as a Survival Strategy

With price competition unfavourable, firms like Shine Bridge Global are moving into functional ingredients and branded packaged foods, where margins are stronger and import substitution economics are less vulnerable. Auti called for IITA involvement in soil health, disease-resistant varieties, fertiliser efficiency, and precision agriculture.

The consensus emerging across industry, academia, and farming communities is clear: Nigeria must industrialise cassava for economic survival, but that industrialisation must be built on cost efficiency, guaranteed inputs, affordable financing, and fair market protection — not volume statistics alone.