One year on from the election of President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria is still awaiting the promised policies to boost the cocoa sector, whose growth is seen as vital to offset a slump in oil revenue that has plunged the economy into crisis.
Buhari routinely states the need to expand the agricultural sector to end the reliance of Africa's biggest oil producer on crude exports and cut its 20 billion U.S dollars annual food import bill.
A priority is to develop cocoa farming, the only sizeable agriculture sector in the continent's biggest economy to have survived government neglect since the 1950s oil discovery.
But Buhari's policies have not yet made it beyond the talking stage.
For cocoa processors, Buhari's foreign exchange policies have added to a crisis, as grinders struggle to get dollars to import spare parts, since the central bank has imposed hefty curbs to support the naira.
This, combined with high bean prices, Nigeria's high transport costs and sporadic power supply, have driven up production costs, causing several plants to shut in recent months.
Cocoa farmers in Nigeria, the world's fourth-largest grower, have recently enjoyed bumper profits, but this is due to high global prices for raw beans rather than government intervention.
Akin Olusuyi says his plant's output fell to 4,000 tonnes last year, a fraction of its 30,000 tonnes capacity.
"We have started shutting down already. As I'm talking to you, there are about eight processing factories in Nigeria and I think as I'm talking now, I think only three or four of us are in operation and in operation epileptically. We are just surviving not living really, not living," said the Cocoa Products (Ile-Oluji) managing director who is based in southwestern Ondo, the country's largest cocoa producing state.
So far the clearest message from Buhari's administration is that it will retain many of its predecessor's policies.
The road map inherited by this government seeks to increase output to 1 million tonnes by 2018 in a bid to catch up with the 1.8 million tonnes of top producer Ivory Coast.
The agriculture ministry also wants to plant 2 million cocoa trees within three years, but no details have been given to show how this would be achieved.
"We're looking forward to quick intervention, quick action on the part of government even if it is by policy statements but we have not seen that yet so well, one welcomes such statements but as we have seen over the years, government talks but it does not walk the talk," said cocoa consultant Robo Adhuse, who works with farmers and non-governmental organisations.
Buhari has unveiled a record 30 billion U.S dollar budget for 2016 to invest in infrastructure to diversify the economy, but the bill setting this out has been delayed by parliamentary wrangling.
Adding further woes, a policy retained from the previous administration in which farmers could receive central bank loans at a rate of 9 percent, instead of borrowing from commercial banks at about 18 percent, has proved difficult to implement.
Buhari has urged banks to increase lending to the agriculture sector and in March said the central bank should bear part of the risk of such loans. But the central bank governor has complained that banks have largely failed to follow this guidance.
Nonetheless, Nigeria's cocoa output is set to rise to 350,000 tonnes in the 2015/16 season, as farmers are reinvesting last season's larger profits in fertilizer and pesticides.
Aside from a brief drop in January, global cocoa prices have risen for two years, buoyed by growing demand for cocoa products and chocolate, particularly in China and India, plus fears that the El Nino weather pattern could affect beans.
Fifty six-year-old, Ebeneezer Akinmade whose five farms located just a 20 minute drive from the Cocoa Products plant span 12 hectares, typifies gains made by farmers in the last few months.
"Last year the price of cocoa was 270,000 to 300,000 naira (1,356 to 1,507 U.S dollars) last year, but this year, it is 800,000 naira (4,020 U.S. dollars) per tonne, which I know... that is of great benefit to me," he said.
High poverty levels among the 180 million Nigerians have prompted authorities to see the labour-intensive cocoa industry as a way to create jobs, but Olusuyi at Cocoa Products has been firing workers to stay afloat.
Buhari routinely states the need to expand the agricultural sector to end the reliance of Africa's biggest oil producer on crude exports and cut its 20 billion U.S dollars annual food import bill.
A priority is to develop cocoa farming, the only sizeable agriculture sector in the continent's biggest economy to have survived government neglect since the 1950s oil discovery.
But Buhari's policies have not yet made it beyond the talking stage.
For cocoa processors, Buhari's foreign exchange policies have added to a crisis, as grinders struggle to get dollars to import spare parts, since the central bank has imposed hefty curbs to support the naira.
This, combined with high bean prices, Nigeria's high transport costs and sporadic power supply, have driven up production costs, causing several plants to shut in recent months.
Cocoa farmers in Nigeria, the world's fourth-largest grower, have recently enjoyed bumper profits, but this is due to high global prices for raw beans rather than government intervention.
Akin Olusuyi says his plant's output fell to 4,000 tonnes last year, a fraction of its 30,000 tonnes capacity.
"We have started shutting down already. As I'm talking to you, there are about eight processing factories in Nigeria and I think as I'm talking now, I think only three or four of us are in operation and in operation epileptically. We are just surviving not living really, not living," said the Cocoa Products (Ile-Oluji) managing director who is based in southwestern Ondo, the country's largest cocoa producing state.
So far the clearest message from Buhari's administration is that it will retain many of its predecessor's policies.
The road map inherited by this government seeks to increase output to 1 million tonnes by 2018 in a bid to catch up with the 1.8 million tonnes of top producer Ivory Coast.
The agriculture ministry also wants to plant 2 million cocoa trees within three years, but no details have been given to show how this would be achieved.
"We're looking forward to quick intervention, quick action on the part of government even if it is by policy statements but we have not seen that yet so well, one welcomes such statements but as we have seen over the years, government talks but it does not walk the talk," said cocoa consultant Robo Adhuse, who works with farmers and non-governmental organisations.
Buhari has unveiled a record 30 billion U.S dollar budget for 2016 to invest in infrastructure to diversify the economy, but the bill setting this out has been delayed by parliamentary wrangling.
Adding further woes, a policy retained from the previous administration in which farmers could receive central bank loans at a rate of 9 percent, instead of borrowing from commercial banks at about 18 percent, has proved difficult to implement.
Buhari has urged banks to increase lending to the agriculture sector and in March said the central bank should bear part of the risk of such loans. But the central bank governor has complained that banks have largely failed to follow this guidance.
Nonetheless, Nigeria's cocoa output is set to rise to 350,000 tonnes in the 2015/16 season, as farmers are reinvesting last season's larger profits in fertilizer and pesticides.
Aside from a brief drop in January, global cocoa prices have risen for two years, buoyed by growing demand for cocoa products and chocolate, particularly in China and India, plus fears that the El Nino weather pattern could affect beans.
Fifty six-year-old, Ebeneezer Akinmade whose five farms located just a 20 minute drive from the Cocoa Products plant span 12 hectares, typifies gains made by farmers in the last few months.
"Last year the price of cocoa was 270,000 to 300,000 naira (1,356 to 1,507 U.S dollars) last year, but this year, it is 800,000 naira (4,020 U.S. dollars) per tonne, which I know... that is of great benefit to me," he said.
High poverty levels among the 180 million Nigerians have prompted authorities to see the labour-intensive cocoa industry as a way to create jobs, but Olusuyi at Cocoa Products has been firing workers to stay afloat.
Pictures courtesy: Akintunde Akinleye (Reuters)
Video link: Nigeria's cocoa sector is still waiting
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