Nigeria will be joining Ghana and Coted’lvoire to impose a Living Income Differential of $400 on every bag of cocoa bought in the Federal Republic.

This move makes the world’s 4th leading producer of cocoa the first to be added to the Ghana-Coted’lvoire Cocoa Initiative.

The aim is to reduce drastically unregulated and liberated pricing regime, which has short change cocoa farmers for a long time.

 Abdullahi Abubakar, Director for Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said

“the LID system which was established by Cote D’Ivoire and Ghana in 2019 is said to be the Cocoa Markets Organisation of Africa. If fully implemented in the region can be compared to the organisation of petroleum exporting countries where prices of cocoa will be regulated.”

“This is what Nigeria endeavours to be a part of”, he added.

Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, has lamented about the under-representation of leading cocoa producers such as Ghana and Ivory Coast in the global cocoa value chain.

According to him, Nigeria’s presence in the Cocoa Markets Organisation will mean a 75% stake in global cocoa pricing for the three countries.

“We pray that apart from Nigeria, Cameroun also comes on board so that we have a very formidable force within the African Continent.”

“If we can do that, we can have a stronger say in the global market when it comes to deciding prices,” Joseph Boahen Aidoo added. 

The Global Cocoa Industry is estimated to be worth $100 billion.

Before the LID was implemented, cocoa farmers in Ghana and Ivory Coast were paid less. 

The low price of cocoa is tied to increased child labor, slavery, trafficking, and deforestation.

In Coted’lvoire, 90% of the forest has disappeared in the last 60 years, according to the Forest and Wildlife Inventory of Ivory Coast.