With the potential to drive industrialisation and exports at unprecedented scale, cassava has become the heartbeat of agriculture in the country.

However, for decades, the roots crop’s industrial potential has been constrained by a single, biological setback: the 48-hour window. Once harvested, cassava roots deteriorate rapidly, losing starch content and value almost immediately.

This short window creates volatility across the supply chain. For farmers, it means weak bargaining power and rushed sales at lower prices. For processors, it means unreliable supply and unpredictable factory operations. Considering the fact that usable roots are only available for a short time, this volatility has become a fundamental barrier to industrialisation.

Nevertheless, a strategic shift is underway. According to insights from the Nigeria Cassava Investment Accelerator (NCIA), an initiative of the Lagos Business School Pan-Atlantic University, the transition toward cassava chips is not just a logistical twist, but an essential infrastructure needed to turn a perishable root into a global industrial commodity.

As highlighted by the NCIA, cassava chips address the crop’s primary constraint by removing moisture. Chips are not a complicated innovation; the process involves slicing the root and drying it to around 12-14 per cent moisture content, totally eliminating the “sell now” pressure. The practical advantage is that chips buy time, what was once a two-day race against rot becomes a storable asset that can last six to 12 months.

But the impact on the cassava value chain is significant because drying turns cassava into a storable commodity. This transforms cassava from a “sell now” crop into a produce that can be held, moved, and supplied with more planning and far less urgency.

This transformation offers three critical economic advantages. They include reduced logistics costs – fresh cassava is 60 per cent; drying roots at the source means processors will not be paying to transport water-filled produce, significantly lowering fuel and haulage costs; market stabilization – storable chips allow for “inventory planning,” enabling factories to operate year-round rather than being subject to seasonal harvest excesses and scarcities; and empowered smallholders: localised chipping hubs allow farmers to lock in value closer to the farm gate, moving them away from the mercy of immediate post-harvest spoilage.

The NCIA emphasises that chips only function as industrial “infrastructure” when quality is standardised. For the model to scale, the industry must move away from informal trade and toward strict specifications. Drying needs to be reliable and protected from risk of re-wetting, also, storage needs to be properly planned and executed; clean packaging, raised pallets, dry rooms, and basic pest control.

These are essential because the biggest enemy of dried chips is moisture returning during handling or storage. And finally, incentives matter. If suppliers don’t see a clear benefit to meeting specifications, quality will drift and the model will revert to an informal commodity trade. When these basics are in place, chips stop being a derivative and start functioning as stored cassava inventory that processors can plan around.

A leading example of this model in action is Sofari Ltd., a female-led cassava processor that has been a first-mover in Nigeria’s cassava-to-chips landscape since 2018.

Insights by the NCIA indicate that Sofari has recognised that factory failure is rarely about machines, but about feedstock. By establishing decentralised pre-processing hubs close to farming communities, Sofari captures the roots within that critical 48-hour window.

This model turns scattered smallholder harvests into a unified, high-quality inventory of chips that feed their production of High-Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) and starch.

The model works operationally by turning chips into stored inventory that can be aggregated from multiple locations and timed to match factory intake needs. This firm maintains strict quality discipline, with clear moisture targets, contamination controls, and consistent handling protocols from hub to warehouse to factory gate.

This approach has allowed the processing facility to run more steadily, making production planning possible and enabling the company to meet buyer delivery schedules with confidence. By standardising hub operations across specification setting, drying standards, storage practices, and acceptance criteria, Sofari is demonstrating how cassava can be stored and moved as chips at regional scale.

Through strict adherence to accepted standards, the company has demonstrated that cassava supply doesn’t have to be volatile. It can be managed with the same care as any other industrial input.

With Sofari working to expand its network of outgrower schemes and processing centres, it is positioned to create long-term capacity that can support industrial buyers. This reduces reliance on aggregators who introduce volatility and unpredictability into the supply chain.

To transition from a successful “proof of concept” to a national standard, the NCIA insight indicates that what companies like Sofari need now is the right partners to scale a model that is already working. Offtakers can play the most direct role by committing to predictable demand, either for these companies’ finished products like HQCF and starch, or for consistent-quality chips as a feedstock.

At the same time, financiers can unlock expansion by providing the capital required to grow networks of processing hubs, increase storage facilities and strengthen quality control practices, while deepening outgrower relationships that secure reliable supply.

With demand pull from offtakers and patient, fit-for-purpose capital behind operations, Sofari can expand from a strong proof point into a dependable supplier for industrial buyers.

By shifting the focus to pre-processing and chips, Nigeria is finally unlocking the true industrial value of its most abundant crop.