Cassava: Nigeria’s $200bn Opportunity Lies Unused

Every harvest season, millions of tonnes of cassava leave Nigerian farms and find their way into homes across the country as Garri, Fufu, Lafun, starch, and other staple foods that have sustained generations of Nigerians. By the next planting season, the cycle begins again, reinforcing Nigeria’s position as the world’s largest producer of cassava. Yet beneath this remarkable agricultural success lies one of the country’s greatest untapped economic opportunities.

For decades, Nigeria has consistently produced more than 60 million metric tonnes of cassava annually, accounting for a significant share of Africa’s output. The continent itself produces well over 200 million metric tonnes each year, representing nearly two-thirds of global cassava production. Despite this enormous advantage, Nigeria captures only a fraction of the wealth generated from the crop. While the country dominates global production, it has failed to establish itself as a leader in the higher-value industrial uses that increasingly define the global cassava economy.

The cassava industry has evolved far beyond its traditional role as a food crop. Today, it serves as a critical raw material for industrial starch, pharmaceuticals, ethanol, sweeteners, livestock feed, biodegradable packaging, paper production, and bio-based chemicals. With growing global demand for renewable and sustainable industrial materials, analysts estimate that the global cassava market, valued at approximately $127.6 billion in 2025, could exceed $200 billion by 2034. Ironically, the nation that produces more cassava than any other has yet to position itself at the centre of this expanding industrial market.

According to them, although millions of tonnes of cassava are harvested every year in the country, relatively little is processed into the high-value products that command premium prices in regional and international markets.

It was one of the country’s most ambitious agricultural industrialisation  programmes. More than two decades later, however, many of its objectives remain unrealised.

Perhaps this narrative may be changing. At the 2025 World Cassava Day celebration in Abuja, Vice President Kashim Shettima reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to repositioning cassava as a driver of industrialisation, import substitution, and economic diversification.

Also, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, disclosed that blending cassava-derived bioethanol with Premium Motor Spirit could save Nigeria as much as ₦3 trillion annually while reducing dependence on imported petroleum products. The proposed Cassava Bioethanol Value Chain Development Project is also expected to stimulate investments in improved planting materials, industrial starch, livestock feed, ethanol production, and even carbon capture technologies.

The private sector is already embracing the possibility. Companies such as Agbeyewa Farms and Matna Foods, both subsidiaries of Cavista Holdings, are investing in integrated cassava value chains that combine cultivation, aggregation, and industrial processing. Psaltry International has emerged as one of Nigeria’s leading cassava processors, producing industrial starch, glucose, sorbitol, and high-quality cassava flour while supporting thousands of smallholder farmers through structured out-grower programmes. Premium Cassava Products Limited, now part of the FMN Group, has also shown how contract farming can successfully connect rural producers with large-scale manufacturing. Analysts believe that these enterprises prove that industrial cassava processing is commercially viable but that the challenge is replicating and scaling these successes across the country.

Also, researchers said opportunities extend even further as they are developing cassava-based bioplastics that could replace petroleum-derived packaging materials, alongside biodegradable food containers, renewable industrial chemicals, and cleaner biofuels produced from cassava waste.

There are some worthy examples of what is possible when agricultural production is matched with industrial investment. Thailand, for instance, produces considerably less cassava than Nigeria but has built a globally competitive export industry around cassava starch, modified starches, and other processed products. Brazil has followed a similar path by investing heavily in research, processing technologies, and industrial applications that have transformed cassava into a profitable manufacturing resource. Analysts said the difference between these countries and Nigeria is not climate, land availability, or production volume. It is their commitment to value addition.

Experts said what the nation needs is matching policy with implementation. In 2003, the Presidential Initiative on Cassava sought to transform the crop into a major export commodity capable of generating billions of dollars in foreign exchange.

Analysts said while making cassava a cornerstone of national food security is commendable, food production alone cannot unlock cassava’s full economic potential for the country. The real wealth, they said, lies in industrial processing and value addition. This is because, across the world, cassava has become an essential input for food manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, breweries, textile factories, renewable energy plants, and packaging industries, and these sectors generate significantly higher returns than the sale of raw roots or traditional food products.