Stakeholders Demand National Coffee Policy as Production Deficits Threaten Nigeria's Agro-Economy

Despite Africa being home to some of the world's most premium coffee varieties, Nigeria's domestic coffee sub-sector is floundering in a state of policy neglect and infrastructural decay. Industry operators, agricultural economists, and local farmers have sounded an alarm over the complete absence of a unified national coffee policy. This structural vacuum, stakeholders argue, has left the country heavily dependent on expensive imports to satisfy a rapidly growing domestic appetite for the beverage.

Processor and logistics operators are currently grappling with systemic bottlenecks, including prohibitive energy costs, obsolete farming techniques, and highly fragmented supply chains. Transporting raw coffee beans from the agrarian highlands of Taraba, Plateau, and Cross River states to major processing hubs in Lagos and Kano has become a logistical nightmare due to dilapidated road networks, significantly inflating production costs and rendering local coffee uncompetitive.

"We are sitting on an agricultural goldmine, yet we continue to drain our scarce foreign exchange reserves to import processed coffee from Europe and East Africa," lamented a prominent agro-processor during a recent industry roundtable.

Unlike cocoa, which has historically enjoyed structured institutional backing and targeted state interventions, coffee has remained largely relegated to the sidelines of Nigeria's agricultural agenda. Analysts point out that without a dedicated regulatory framework, local farmers are unable to access high-yield seedlings, critical credit facilities, or modern agronomic training, effectively capping the country's export potential.