Founder and Group Managing Director of CapitalSage Holdings, Mr. John Alamu, has called for a strategic transition from exporting raw cocoa beans to producing and exporting finished goods such as chocolate, cocoa butter, and powder. He said this shift would drastically increase Nigeria’s foreign earnings and create thousands of jobs.
Speaking on the growth of his business, which began in 2014 with ₦100,000, Alamu emphasized that value addition through processing is the foundation of sustainable economic transformation. “An exporter of raw cocoa makes about $8,000 per tonne, but processing it can raise the value up to 30 times,” he explained.
CapitalSage Holdings, through subsidiaries like Johnvents Group, operates 10 factories with the capacity to process 48,000MT of cocoa annually for export to Europe, Asia, and the US. The Group’s agribusiness spans cocoa, sesame, cashew, rice, and rubber, employing over 2,000 people and supporting 10,000 farmers globally.
Alamu, who recently won the Business Conglomerate Leadership Award at the Marketing Edge Awards, reaffirmed his mission to drive Africa’s economic independence through innovation, value creation, and financial inclusion.
let Nigeria invest in it