FG, NCIA seal deal to transform Nigeria’s cassava industry
To mark World Cassava Day 2025, the National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF) and the Nigeria Cassava Investment Accelerator (NCIA) signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to transform cassava into a national economic driver. The agreement, sealed at the State House in Abuja, reflects Nigeria’s shift from seeing cassava as merely a food staple to a high-value industrial crop.
Mohammed Ibrahim, NADF’s Executive Secretary, said the initiative will modernize the cassava value chain by improving processing infrastructure, financing models, and market access. He emphasized cassava’s immense industrial versatility with over 50 derivatives—from flour and ethanol to biodegradable packaging.
The NCIA, which is backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented by Boston Consulting Group and Lagos Business School, is set to inject strategic investment and innovation into Nigeria’s cassava ecosystem.
With ₦2 billion already earmarked by NADF to support the sector, the MoU builds on earlier momentum from the Cassava Roundtable in Ekiti and ongoing engagement with major players such as Cavista Holdings and Agbeyewa Farms. There’s also a push to integrate youth-led innovations through competitions and climate-smart financing models.
Ibrahim called on stakeholders to move beyond one-off initiatives and commit to long-term structures that reduce inefficiencies and promote inclusive growth across the cassava supply chain.
Source- Tribune Online
Expert Review for Agri-Food Stakeholders
Nigeria is charting a new industrial course by turning cassava into a backbone for agro-industrial transformation. This NADF–NCIA partnership signals a deliberate move to deepen investments and formalize market linkages in the cassava value chain.
- Strategic Coordination:
This partnership aligns public funding with private-sector innovation—critical for fixing the fragmented cassava ecosystem that has suffered from inconsistent policy execution, weak processing capacity, and poor linkages to end-markets. - Processing and Value Addition:
For too long, Nigeria’s cassava sector has been dominated by raw production. This collaboration can change that by building scalable processing hubs, thereby unlocking the real value of cassava—through starch, ethanol, feed, and other derivatives. - Youth and Innovation Integration:
By investing in climate-smart, youth-led innovations and inclusive finance, this initiative holds promise for job creation, women’s empowerment, and rural economic growth. - Export Competitiveness:
The deliberate focus on turning Nigeria into not just a leader in production but also in cassava-based exports is timely, especially with global demand growing for industrial starch, bioethanol, and sustainable packaging.
In summary, the NADF–NCIA agreement lays a foundation for durable reform in the cassava sector. Its success, however, will depend on consistent financing, policy alignment across ministries, and strong monitoring mechanisms to ensure execution at scale.
