Cassava can power Nigeria’s industrial future- Dr. Tony Bello

The Chief Innovation & Commercialization Officer at Matna Foods Limited, a Cavista Holdings company, Dr. Tony Bello, has said Nigeria is missing out on billions of naira in economic value due to persistent gaps across the cassava value chain.

Speaking on the country’s cassava industry, Bello argued that while Nigeria consistently produces more than 60 million metric tons of cassava annually, persistent gaps across the cassava value chain continue to prevent the country from fully commercializing the world’s largest cassava production base.

“Weak commercialization, underutilized processing capacity, and limited downstream industrial development continue to prevent the country from fully unlocking the crop’s economic and export potential,” he said

Nigeria’s biggest challenge is no longer production but converting that output into industrial products, exports, and sustainable economic returns.

What he is saying

According to him, as the world’s largest cassava producer, Nigeria possesses a strategic opportunity to transform agricultural production into industrial value creation and export competitiveness.
“Every major economic region has historically built its food security and industrial development around one or more strategic staple crops. In the United States, wheat and potatoes became platforms for food security and industrial value creation. Across Europe, potatoes and corn played similar roles. In Latin America, maize evolved from a staple crop into an industrial platform supporting food products, ingredients, animal feed, sweeteners, starches, and exports. In Asia, rice has performed a similar function. What these regions have in common is that they did not stop at food security. They transformed staple crops into engines of industrialization, employment, exports, and economic growth.

Nigeria’s equivalent staple crop is cassava. It remains the country’s most important food-security crop and supports millions of Nigerians through products such as garri, fufu, akpu, lafun, flour, tapioca, and starch. Historically, cassava’s role was associated primarily with subsistence and food security. Today, however, cassava is increasingly emerging as a strategic industrial crop. This is where the real opportunity begins,” he said
According to Bello, the challenge is no longer production. The challenge is industrialization. The challenge is transforming production into value, value into revenue, and revenue into sustainable profitability.

Processing capacity remains underutilized

Bello noted that contrary to popular belief, Nigeria’s biggest bottleneck is not a lack of processing infrastructure but poor utilization of existing facilities.
“One of the most revealing findings from recent industry analyses is that installed processing capacity is not the primary problem. Capacity utilization is.
According to him, many cassava processing factories are operating far below their installed capacity, resulting in higher operating costs, lower returns on investment, and reduced competitiveness.
“This means that billions of naira in investments are not generating their full economic potential. Underutilized factories result in higher operating costs, lower returns on investment, and reduced competitiveness. Industrialization becomes difficult when factories designed to run at 80% or 90% utilization are operating at 20% to 40%,” he said.
Bello added that earlier investments in cassava processing struggled because they lacked reliable feedstock supply, prompting a second wave of investments that integrated farming with processing operations.
However, he noted that much of the industry’s output remains concentrated in commodity products such as High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) and native cassava starch, instead of higher-value downstream products capable of generating stronger industrial and export earnings.
Technology key to unlocking growth
Bello also identified technology, mechanization, and research as essential to improving productivity and strengthening Nigeria’s cassava industry.
According to him, industrialization depends on higher farm yields, efficient production systems, reliable supply chains, and consistent feedstock availability.
He cited Agbeyewa Farms as an example of large-scale investment, noting that the company has expanded cultivation to more than 2,800 hectares and is targeting about 5,000 hectares of planted cassava.

He added that the company is collaborating with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and other research partners on varietal selection, seed quality, disease resistance, starch content, vigor, and yield improvement. The objective is not simply to plant more cassava. The objective is to plant better cassava.

The challenge before Nigeria is therefore not simply to produce more cassava. The challenge is to create more value from cassava.

This transformation begins with a mindset shift. We must move beyond seeing cassava as merely a food-security crop and recognize it as an industrial platform. We must move beyond viewing agriculture as a development activity and embrace it as a business, manufacturing, and industrial growth opportunity.