How Johnvents is turning Nigeria’s cocoa challenges into a global agribusiness

Over the years, Johnvents, a subsidiary of Capitalsage Holdings, has leveraged Nigeria’s agricultural potential to develop an built-in agribusiness spanning commodity buying and selling, agro-processing and shopper merchandise. Its portfolio contains chocolate merchandise, cashew kernels, soybean oil, soybean meal, animal feed and bottled water, amongst others.

In this interview with PREMIUM TIMES, John Alamu, founder and group managing director of Capitalsage Holdings, discusses how Johnvents is remodeling Nigeria’s agribusiness panorama by investments in cocoa and cashew processing, vegetable oil manufacturing, animal feed manufacturing and different value-added merchandise.

Mr Alamu discusses the experiences that impressed his entrepreneurial journey, the challenges of accessing finance and markets, and the corporate’s efforts to enhance cocoa high quality by farmer coaching, sustainable practices, and entry to improved seedlings. He additionally highlights the necessity to develop home cocoa manufacturing, change ageing cocoa bushes and strengthen agricultural processing to scale back Africa’s dependence on uncooked commodity exports.

Excerpt

PT: What motivated you to go into cocoa-product manufacturing?

Mr Alamu: I began my profession on the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan. I’m additionally the proud son of a instructor who taught agriculture, and I graduated from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. So, once you have a look at my household background, schooling and profession, you may see that agriculture has all the time been a part of my journey. I started my profession at IITA, a analysis institute, as a monitoring and analysis specialist. This allowed me to work straight with farmers. At the time, we weren’t working particularly on cocoa. We labored with farmers cultivating cassava, maize and different crops.

Through our analysis, farmers repeatedly recognized a number of challenges, however two persistently stood out: entry to finance and entry to markets. The response to those challenges was typically extra analysis, and the cycle continued. I made a decision to not see these two main issues within the agricultural sector merely as challenges. Instead, I noticed them as alternatives to discover. I had a number of concepts about how one can make the most of these alternatives and switch them into viable companies. I noticed them as ventures I may pursue, and I imagine that’s how the corporate title, Johnvents, took place. Our preliminary enterprise targeted on coaching farmers in good agronomic practices, shopping for their produce, and promoting it to the market.

From there, we expanded into commodity buying and selling. We provided maize seedlings and grains to internally displaced individuals’ camps to help meals safety efforts promoted by improvement finance establishments, the World Food Programme, Catholic Relief Services and different organisations. However, after I began my entrepreneurial journey, I didn’t restrict myself to agriculture. I additionally established a monetary providers enterprise referred to as Credit Assistants Investment Limited, which has since grown into Capital State Technology Group.

At one level, I travelled to Akure to market a microfinance financial institution product. The go to took me to a website beside our present manufacturing unit in Akure, owned by a cocoa cooperative conglomerate. The cooperative knowledgeable me that it had a distressed, moribund manufacturing unit and was on the lookout for buyers. However, I knew nothing concerning the manufacturing unit; bushes overgrown it, and the equipment wanted consideration. That expertise sparked my curiosity. I instructed them I used to be keen to amass the manufacturing unit. I requested the cooperative for a versatile cost construction and assist leveraging its model. I additionally requested entry to human assets, together with engineers who may help the operation. One of the engineers really helpful to us was Engineer Gomolu. He is nonetheless on our board immediately as the manager director, technical, at Johnvents Cocoa.

That was how the story started.

We secured financing from the International Finance Corporation to refurbish the manufacturing unit and purchase new equipment for our Akure operations. From there, we additional acquired Premium Cocoa Products in Oyo State. The enterprise grew to become much more attention-grabbing as we diversified past cocoa.

Today, we course of cashews at our Ondo State manufacturing unit, with a capability of 30,000 metric tonnes. We even have 10 crops in Ondo that course of cashews into kernels and shells, course of soybeans into soybean oil and soybean meal, and run an animal feed mill.

We have additionally expanded considerably into fast-moving shopper items (FMCG). We course of cocoa into merchandise reminiscent of Johnvents Choco Pops, Johnvents Choco Cubes, and Johnvents chocolate, together with merchandise for youngsters. We even have our personal bottled-water model.

We function throughout the agricultural worth chain, together with upstream, midstream, and downstream actions. Our imaginative and prescient is to grow to be a actually global and inclusive agribusiness that facilitates global provide chains, notably in meals manufacturing and meals safety. We at present function in 19 international locations, and we plan to consolidate our presence in these markets by transitioning from commodity buying and selling in direction of agricultural processing. Enough is sufficient. Africa has spent an excessive amount of time speaking about the necessity to cease exporting uncooked commodities. We don’t need to be part of the refrain of complaints. We need to preserve constructing factories and altering that narrative in a important manner.

PT: How do you guarantee the standard of your uncooked supplies, given considerations concerning the high quality of cocoa beans sourced in Nigeria?

Mr Alamu: Quality merchandise start with major manufacturing. It begins on the farm. Johnvents has invested considerably in a sturdy sustainability programme. I ought to point out that Johnvents is Rainforest Alliance-certified. This certification validates our sustainability efforts. What can we do for farmers? We hyperlink them with related agricultural analysis establishments, together with the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), which gives entry to improved, high-yielding varieties. Gone are the times when farmers needed to wait 5 years for cocoa bushes to mature. Some varieties now mature in lower than three years, and a few reportedly in as little as 18 months. The first step is giving farmers entry to high-quality seedlings.

Secondly, by our sustainability programme, we join them with applicable financing companions to enhance entry to finance. We additionally prepare them in good agronomic practices.

Today, now we have about 40,000 farmers below our programme, making it nearly unattainable to work with each farmer individually. To deal with this, we use totally different methods. Some farmers are organised into cooperatives, by which we have interaction with them, whereas others are linked by our native shopping for brokers. Our farmers and native shopping for brokers are licensed, and our factories are recertified as nicely. Because a lot of Nigerian cocoa is destined for Europe, we should adjust to related European Union laws and sustainability necessities. Our sustainability programme has helped us deal with these necessities.

A big proportion of the cocoa we deal with is now compliant with the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).

This includes addressing points reminiscent of traceability and baby labour, making certain that kids aren’t despatched to farms when they need to be at school. It additionally covers pesticide residues in crops. Through our coaching programmes, farmers study which pesticides to make use of and the suitable portions. These points beforehand made Nigerian cocoa much less aggressive in worldwide markets.

We have a cocoa bean processing capability of 48,000 metric tonnes. However, Nigeria’s cocoa manufacturing is declining, with annual output estimated at 300,000 metric tonnes. One problem is that our rivals aren’t simply different cocoa processors; in addition they embrace uncooked cocoa bean exporters. Raw bean exporters take pleasure in shorter enterprise cycles as a result of they don’t have to retailer giant portions of cocoa in warehouses for prolonged intervals or commit the substantial working capital processors require.

As processors, we should maintain inventory and tie up capital whereas ready to course of and promote our merchandise. This places us at a drawback in contrast with uncooked bean exporters. We recognise that Nigeria’s cocoa provide might not meet our wants until the nation develops a deliberate agenda to extend cocoa manufacturing.

Beyond our sustainability programme, which addresses present cocoa farms, we’re additionally working to interchange outdated cocoa bushes, as many in manufacturing are ageing.

We have additionally developed our personal agroforestry mannequin, which we’re at present implementing in Ondo and Cross River states. We respect the state governments’ help. Ondo State has offered us with roughly 1,000 hectares of land, the place cocoa farmers can personal plots and set up cocoa farms consistent with prescribed high quality requirements. The Cross River State Government has offered us with roughly 7,000 hectares. We will proceed to advocate for help from different cocoa-producing states. We have written to state governments and are awaiting their response. We are able to work with them to make extra land obtainable for cocoa manufacturing. Nigeria wants to extend its output to compete with different main cocoa-producing international locations. Côte d’Ivoire, for example, produces greater than 1.2 million metric tonnes of cocoa yearly, whereas Ghana produces roughly 700,000 metric tonnes. Nigeria was as soon as one of many world’s main cocoa producers. I imagine we will return to that place by investing in manufacturing, enhancing farm productiveness, and increasing the nation’s cocoa-growing capability.

PT: With month-to-month electrical energy payments reportedly hitting ₦45 million, how shut is Johnvents to transitioning into a absolutely self-sustained renewable power mannequin, and what timeline ought to buyers count on for this swap?

Mr Alamu: Energy effectivity and the transition to cleaner power are strategic priorities for strengthening Johnvents Group’s operational resilience, price effectivity, and environmental efficiency. Given the energy-intensive nature of our processing services, we’re taking a phased, site-specific strategy to figuring out viable renewable power options.

As reported in our 2025 Sustainability Report, 39.41% of the Group’s power consumption got here from renewable and low-carbon sources. Building on this baseline, we’re dedicated to assessing renewable power alternatives throughout our services, figuring out energy-efficiency enhancements and evaluating the technical and business feasibility of options reminiscent of solar energy and power storage.

In parallel, we’re strengthening our greenhouse fuel accounting by calculating and monitoring our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions to grasp our emissions footprint higher, establish key discount alternatives, and monitor progress over time. These insights will assist inform our power transition priorities and help the event of a sensible, data-driven decarbonisation roadmap. Our subsequent steps will give attention to assessing site-level power demand, evaluating funding necessities and prioritising initiatives based mostly on their potential to scale back grid dependence, power prices and greenhouse fuel emissions.

While now we have not but established a definitive timeline for attaining full renewable power self-sufficiency, our quick precedence is to translate this ambition into a structured transition plan with measurable milestones, balancing emissions reductions and long-term price financial savings with the reliability required to maintain our operations. Specific targets and timelines shall be communicated because the assessments progress and the implementation roadmap is validated.

PT: Credit assessments have highlighted that a important quantity of working capital is tied up in stock and advance deposits to aggregators. What steps are you taking to, release money stream and scale back liquidity pressures throughout the low season?

Mr Alamu: Our working-capital necessities mirror the seasonal nature of agricultural procurement. During key crop home windows, we strategically safe uncooked supplies to help manufacturing and buyer demand, with that stock subsequently processed, offered, and transformed into money. Managing this cycle successfully is due to this fact a basic a part of our working mannequin. Our focus is on sustaining sturdy self-discipline throughout the complete cash-conversion cycle, from procurement and stock administration to manufacturing, gross sales and collections. This contains strengthening demand and procurement forecasting, enhancing stock turnover, aligning purchases with manufacturing and gross sales necessities, and sustaining shut oversight of receivables.

Given the seasonality of the enterprise, we additionally search financing constructions which can be appropriately aligned with agricultural procurement cycles and the timing of buyer and export receipts. Our cash-conversion cycle can prolong to roughly 150 days throughout seasonal peaks, whereas buyer collections usually happen inside 25 to 40 days. This displays the timing between procurement, processing, cargo,ment and assortment somewhat than a uniform funding requirement all year long.

Our precedence stays to handle this cycle prudently, preserve applicable liquidity, meet our obligations as they fall due, and be certain that our operations are adequately funded to seize alternatives throughout important procurement intervals. Any particular financing or capital-management initiatives shall be communicated in accordance with our authorised monetary disclosures.

PT: Insecurity and farmer displacement are main realities in your sourcing areas. How is Johnvents bodily defending its provide chain and making certain a regular stream of uncooked supplies if important farming hubs face sudden lockdowns or disruptions?

Mr Alamu: Supply-chain resilience begins with understanding the place our uncooked supplies come from, sustaining sturdy relationships with suppliers and farmer teams, and avoiding pointless dependence on a single supply or route. Our cocoa sourcing community spans a number of Nigerian states. This multi-origin strategy provides us choices to evaluate adjustments in native circumstances, topic to crop availability, high quality necessities, and business issues. We additionally work by farmer associations, cooperatives and native shopping for brokers, supported by sourcing and traceability processes. These relationships assist us preserve visibility into provide circumstances and reply when volumes, logistics or entry are disrupted. At the operational degree, safety and emergency planning have to be proportionate to the danger and coordinated with related authorities and native stakeholders.

We can’t remove the broader safety dangers affecting agricultural communities, and we’d not declare that any sourcing mannequin is proof against disruption. Our precedence is to establish rising dangers early, assess different sourcing and logistics choices the place applicable, and shield the security of farmers, staff, suppliers and transport companions whereas sustaining accountable procurement.

PT: While your export-heavy mannequin brings in international change, it additionally exposes you to intense global commodity-price shocks. What hedging methods do you’ve in place to guard Johnvents if global cocoa or cashew costs fall unexpectedly?

Mr Alamu: Commodity-price volatility is a materials danger for any processor or participant working in worldwide agricultural markets. Our strategy due to this fact combines disciplined procurement, shut market monitoring, cautious administration of stock and gross sales commitments, and a clear understanding of the value publicity at every stage of the buying and selling and processing cycle.

Where export gross sales and enter purchases are denominated in international foreign money, matching exposures and timing may help handle some dangers. Still, it doesn’t remove the influence of sharp actions in global commodity costs. The applicable instruments depend upon the commodity, contract phrases, market liquidity, and the group’s authorised danger urge for food. We assess exposures and business commitments to hedge danger, shield margins, and protect our means to fulfill buyer and provider obligations. Our broader precedence is to handle publicity prudently, keep away from taking dangers that aren’t supported by our working capability, and construct a resilient enterprise throughout market cycles.

PT: Johnvents has set a goal for 100 per cent traceability and licensed sustainable sourcing by 2027. Given your reliance on fragmented unbiased aggregators, what is the most important bottleneck holding you again from hitting this deadline?

Mr Alamu: Johnvents has achieved 100 per cent traceability and EUDR compliance throughout the related sourcing scope, representing a important milestone in strengthening provide chain transparency and accountable sourcing. Our progress displays continued funding in farm mapping and geolocation, provider knowledge administration, farmer engagement, and monitoring techniques. We now give attention to sustaining this achievement as our sourcing community and volumes develop, whereas persevering with to strengthen provider oversight and licensed sustainable sourcing throughout our provide chains. Working with unbiased aggregators requires constant knowledge administration, verification, and adherence to accountable sourcing necessities throughout a number of actors and places. Our revealed sustainability data additionally highlights progress on this space, together with 122,916 hectares of farmland reported as verified deforestation-free and EUDR-ready in 2025.

Our precedence is to take care of the integrity of our traceability techniques, strengthen ongoing verification and advance licensed sustainable sourcing consistent with our 2027 dedication. This will assist be certain that our sourcing practices stay clear, dependable, and aligned with relevant regulatory and sustainability necessities.

PT: Fuel subsidy removing and meals inflation have elevated transportation prices for smallholder farmers. How is Johnvents making certain these farmers don’t abandon your community for native patrons who might pay money upfront with out requiring strict compliance?

Mr Alamu: Farmer loyalty can’t be secured by asking farmers to soak up rising prices with out help. It is dependent upon whether or not the connection provides a reliable market, clear necessities and worth over time. Our long-term cocoa programme goals to help 150,000 farmers by 2030, and our present revealed disclosures report greater than 40,000 farmer companions throughout our sourcing community.

We are strengthening farmer relationships by coaching, entry to seedlings, cooperative and aggregation constructions, traceability help and hyperlinks to markets. Training and clear communication about high quality necessities may scale back avoidable rejection, delays and prices.

READ ALSO: The missing link in Nigeria’s cocoa value chain, By Ibim Banigo and Raphaël de Perlinghi

Payment phrases and transport preparations are essential to farmers’ selections, so that they have to be commercially workable and communicated clearly. We mustn’t promise common farm-gate assortment, transport subsidies or quick money cost until these preparations can be found for the commodity and site. Our goal is to construct relationships wherein accountable sourcing necessities are matched by dependable engagement, clear processes and a credible path to market.

PT: Large-scale cocoa processing faces rising scrutiny over deforestation and monocrop farming. Beyond offering macro-loans, how are you actively implementing agroforestry practices amongst unbiased smallholders who lack the capital to shift to climate-smart farming?

Mr Alamu: Our strategy is to make sustainable farming sensible for smallholders, not merely to set necessities and count on farmers to fulfill them with out help. Through our cocoa sustainability programme, we work with farmers on good agricultural practices, climate-smart strategies, farm mapping and traceability. We have distributed greater than 400,000 cocoa and shade bushes since 2022, supporting efforts to enhance farm resilience and encourage tree cowl inside cocoa landscapes.

We have educated greater than 8,000 in climate-smart agriculture throughout Ondo State, and 122,916 hectares have been verified as deforestation-free and EUDR-ready. We use farm-level data and traceability techniques to enhance visibility of sourcing areas and assist establish deforestation dangers. These actions complement engagement with farmer teams and supply-chain companions on accountable sourcing.

Enforcement have to be paired with sensible help. Farmers want steering on tree administration, soil well being, farm productiveness and compliance, in addition to entry to seedlings and cooperative constructions that may assist them share information and assets. We additionally want to watch implementation and deal with non-compliance by our provider and sustainability processes. We recognise that the transition takes time, notably for farmers with restricted capital, so our intention is to mix clear requirements, monitoring and farmer help somewhat than depend on financing alone.

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