Processed cocoa products more profitable to Nigeria’s economy than raw exports – Alamu

Processing of cocoa into finished products for export has been described as more profitable to Nigeria’s economy than exporting raw cocoa beans.

John Alamu, founder and Group Managing Director of CapitalSage Holdings, stated this while speaking on how he started his business, which has turned into a conglomerate, with a sum of N100,000 in 2014.

He disclosed that an exporter of raw cocoa would make $8000 per tonne, but if processed to finished products like chocolate, the exporter would make 30 times of exporting it raw.

According to him, “export raw cocoa and you make $8,000 per tonne. Turn it into butter and you earn six times more. Make chocolate, and the value rises up to 30 times.”

This philosophy, Alamu said, has been the driving force of the Group’s evolution into a fully integrated value chain company.

Alamu, who is driving value across several sectors, has as the company’s subsidiaries, Johnvents Group, which is currently a rising global integrated value chain participant.

It has become one of the leading supply chain participants and processors of sesame, cocoa, legumes, cashew, soya, edible nuts, rice and rubber, boasting millions of dollars in annual revenue.

He disclosed that with ten factories, including Johnvents Industries and Premium Cocoa Products (Ile-Oluji), one of Nigeria’s oldest cocoa plants, the Group possesses the capacity to process up to 48,000MT of cocoa annually for export to Europe, Asia, and the US.

Johnvents Group (CapitalSage Holdings’ agribusiness group) is, through its business units, building strength across multiple agri commodities and consumer markets.

He explained that its cocoa unit anchors global exports of butter, liquor, cake, and powder, while the sesame and legumes unit sources and supplies premium-grade sesame, soya, and grains from multiple origins across Africa and beyond.

According to him, cashew and edible nuts add further diversity to the company, expanding Africa’s presence in the global nut value chain.

The edible oil, feed & water unit powers agro-industrial complexes with oils feed, and bottled water, employing hundreds of women in the process.

Alamu disclosed that the rice and rubber unit contributes to food and industrial crop security, while the FMCG division delivers household-ready products such as cocoa powder, beverages, cereals, and seasoning cubes to a growing distributor network.

In a recent Forbes Africa Independence Day Edition, Alamu disclosed that with N100,000 in 2014, he began offering small loans to farmers and market women in rural areas in Nigeria.

This along the line evolved into CapitalSage Holdings, a diversified conglomerate spanning agribusiness, finance, technology, healthcare, and manufacturing.

He explained that “We started with N100,000, today, we’re building global businesses from Africa.

“Today, CapitalSage Holdings employs over 2,000 people directly, supports more than 10,000 farmers, operating across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.”

Meanwhile, Kolomoni, which is the company’s fintech arm, claims thousands of point-of-sale agents, merchant and network managers, advancing financial inclusion in a country where nearly 40 percent of the population remains unbanked.

Ercas, another fintech, underpins digital transactions and back-end infrastructure for payments.

However, despite the successes recorded, Alamu said the mission is more than corporate success, but rather economic independence.

He said: “The next struggle, like independence, is economic freedom. “That requires courage, disruption, and African confidence.”

CapitalSage Holdings’ fintech arm, CapitalSage Technology, has recorded uncommon feat as it currently holds a BBB+ credit rating from all three Nigerian SEC-recognised agencies, GCR, Agusto & Co., and DataPro, which is a strong signal of governance, transparency, and fiscal discipline.

Likewise, Johnvents Group, the agribusiness and manufacturing subsidiary, maintains its own BBB+ rating, which further reinforced the Group’s credibility and performance strength in capital markets.

Recognising the contributions of Alamu to Nigeria and Africa’s economy, he recently received the Business Conglomerate Leadership Award at the Marketing Edge Awards.

This is to serve as impetus for his vision of building enduring businesses across Africa’s most critical sectors.

Nevertheless, Alamu’s giant stride shows that Africa’s economic future lies not in raw exports but in transformation, value addition, and bold leadership.