By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – AHEAD of the fourth edition of the Nigeria Cashew Day 2026, National Cashew Association of Nigeria, NCAN, yesterday, revealed that Nigeria’s cashew industry holds $10 billion annual revenue potential if properly harnessed along the value chain.

The revelation was made by the National President, NCAN, Dr Joseph Ajanaku, at a press conference held on the heels of the fourth Nigeria Cashew Day starting from January 22-24, 2026, with the theme ‘Unlocking the True Potential of the Nigerian Cashew Industry for True Investment, Innovation, and Global Trade’, stressed that what the country needs is holistic and sustainable policies that drives investment, boost production, and position the industry on a global stage that leads in the international market.

According to Ajanaku, Nigeria owns over 92 million hectares of land with 34 million of arable land unutilised while Nigeria’s neighbour, Côte d’Ivoire, has about 32 million hectares, which the country properly harnesss to cultivate cocoa and cashew, and is ahead of Nigeria.

He also pointed out that cashew can be grown in all the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, but lamented that poor attention has been the bane of the industry.

He made it known that when cashew was planted in Kano State, the yield was far better compared to others who have been producing cashew, and that “the cashew that was brought from Kanu gave us 170 knots to make one kilogram, which is difficult to get in other parts of the country, and these are the states that are not producing cashew.”

According to NCAN boss officially recorded exports from the last season stood at over 400,000 metric tonnes, valued at about $700 million, but the actual figure is believed to be much higher.

The NCAN boss further stated that the nation’s cashew industry is a force to reckon with at he international market, based on its quality cashew nuts and the volume of production that stands at over 400 million tonnes.

He also said Nigeria’s cashew production potential can be increased to over 2 million metric tonnes annually within five years, and could be upscaled to over 4 million metric tonnes.

He added that at a conservative selling price of $1,500 per metric tonne “producing 2 million metric tonnes would generate $3 billion, excluding by-products.

The 2026 edition of the Nigeria Cashew Day is organised by the National Cashew Association of Nigeria, NCAN, in collaboration with the

He said: “In 2023 in Benin, where we flagged off the Nigeria Cashew Day as an association by the grace of God when I took over the leadership of the association. In 2024, we did it in Enugu, and 2025 in Lagos.

“But in 2026, we are bringing it to the seat of power in Abuja here, where we want to have interface with the executive arm of the government to see that we have a national policy that will befit the sector, and not hijacked by some interests, but it will be the one that emanated from us as a people, so that we can own the industry and not be an artificial owner or be a slave to what we are producing in our country.

“We don’t want to produce inorganic cashew. We are promoting our organic cashew because that is where the interest is. We have the land, we have the population, we have the financial capacity. So there’s nothing lacking in terms of being the number one cashew producer in the world.

“And also taking the position of a cashew processing country, if not taking the lead, but close to taking the lead, if we do what is right, by giving us a policy that is owned by us and not an imposed policy in the sector that will kill the Nigeria cashew industry by strategy because we are not unaware of the international economic war, and so Nigeria is not an exception, and we should not be deceived about that.

“If we process what we produce locally and fully exploit the value chain, Nigeria can earn a minimum of $10 billion annually from the cashew industry.”

“That is why our conference is coming out in a way to enlighten the world, to show to the world that Nigeria is open for business, and we have the capacity to lead in the Nigeria cashew industry. So I call you, my fellow Nigerians to promote this conference like we have been doing before.”

However, he lamented that most of Nigeria’s cashew exported out of the country are without records, because, exporters.do not fill the Nigerian Export Proceed Form in order not to repatriate the money back to Nigeria.

Meanwhile, according to him, “cashew exported out of the country that has record for this past season was over 400,000 metric tonnes, and that is roughly about $700 million.”

He added that Nigeria’s cashew stands at about 400 to 500,000 metric tonnes.

Also, speaking , the National Secretary, NCAN, Engr Augustine Edime, explained that it is very imperative at this point for both public and private sectors to invest in the huge potential of the cashew industry.

“We need a lot of investment, but it is not the right investment, because we know that a lot of people who claim to have invested in Nigeria, but they are not the right investments that we need.

“When we talk about right investments, we are looking at how the production angle will be fixed, the processing will be fixed, and then not just processing, because for cashew, if the chain is not locked, if you don’t have all the value chains taken care of, you may be promoting a particular angle while other angles suffer”, Edime said.

Adding to what his President earlier said about Kogi State taking a serious leap in cashew production with sustainable policies in place, urged other States to take a cue from Kogi State, which has been the nation’s top cashew producing State and had recently come up with laudable initiatives to galvanize the cashew industry based on the huge revenue its going to generate, massive employment creation, access to markets, and attracting investors.

Also, a representative of Federation of Agriculture Commodities Association of Nigeria, FACAN, and also an Ex-officio of NCAN, Isaac Ojonugwa, expressed optimism that if the needful is done by the government and stakeholders Nigeria’s cashew industry will be a global driver of the commodity.

“NCAN is an association that wants to take the cashew industry to the next level at the international market through structured markets in such a way where smallholder farmers are organized in such a way that will have both local and international up-takers. This will enable us to have a win-win situation in our pricing.

“So we are out to make sure that this cashew industry is brought to a level where we have not done it before, and all hands must be on deck to make sure that we are operating in such a way that our farmers will benefit, processors will benefit, and also banks and insurance companies will be brought in”, Ojonugwa added.