Nigeria Can Earn $10bn Yearly From Cashew Industry — Producers

Nigeria’s cashew industry could generate up to $10 billion in annual revenue and create millions of jobs if production and processing are properly structured, the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) has said.

The projection was outlined yesterday in Abuja by NCAN President Ojo Joseph Ajanaku, during a briefing to journalists ahead of the association’s 2026 national conference and Nigerian Cashew Day.

Ajanaku said Nigeria possessed a vast untapped agricultural capacity, noting that while the country had about 92 million hectares of land, only a fraction  was currently cultivated.

He contrasted this with Côte d’Ivoire, which has significantly less land mass but outperforms Nigeria in cocoa and cashewproduction. According to him, a coordinated national policy and investment-driven approach could reposition Nigeria as a leading global producer and processor of organic cashew.

He said, “Nigeria is losing immense value by exporting raw cashew nuts. In contrast, by-products such as cashew nut shell liquid and industrial cake  have been  discarded locally despite strong international demand.”

According to him, even cashew cake alone sells for about $0.95 per kilogramme in global markets.

“If we are doing just two million tonnes of cashew annually, which we can achieve in less than five years, and the price is about $1,500 per tonne, that is $3 billion already, apart from other by-products, if we process what we produce in Nigeria, it will give us nothing less than $10 billion annually.

We want a policy that emanates from us as a people, one that allows us to own the industry and not become slaves to what we produce. Nigeria has the land, the population and the financial capacity to lead in cashew production and processing globally”, he said.

The association also raised concerns about weak domestic processing capacity, particularly in major producing states, a gap they said fuels rural-urban migration, unemployment and social dislocation.

NCAN disclosed that Nigeria currently produces about 400,000 to 500,000 metric tonnes of cashew annually, generating roughly $700 million, but said production could rise to two million tonnes within five years with the right policies and investments.

The national secretary of NCAN, Agustine Unekwiojo stressed that investment in the sector must cover the full value chain, including by-products such as cashew nut shell liquid and shell cake, which have significant industrial uses.

Unekwiojo said many investors focus narrowly on kernel processing, leaving substantial value untapped.

The 2026 conference scheduled to hold in Abuja in January, 2026 would be on attracting “right investments” that cover the entire cashew value chain, including by-products such as cashew nut shell liquid, shell cake and industrial derivatives used in fuels, coatings and agro-inputs.