National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) has rejected the ban placed on unprocessed cashew export by the Federal Government. This was part of the resolution of the association at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) and the 2026 cashew season flag-off in Lagos.

The pronouncement was made by the new President, Ademola Adesokan, after his endorsement as the leader of NCAN by delegates at the stakeholders’ meeting.

Nigeria is not ready for the ban yet, he asserted. He rejected foreign encroachment into the country’s farm gates, which, according to him, was distorting prices and destroying the cashew industry.

“We are going back to Abuja to let the Federal Government know what the issues are and work with the Immigration, Customs and other law enforcement agencies to protect our farm gates,” he said.

Also, with a voice vote, the AGM pronounced the dissolution of the former executive committee led by Joseph Ojo, as well as the suspension of all revenue collections in the cashew industry for 2026.

At the event, the Federal Government expressed interest in the cashew sector, which, it noted, stands as one of Nigeria’s non-oil resources to grow the economy.

The Deputy Director in the Industrial Development Department (IDD), Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment, Mrs Olumuyiwa Ajayi-Ade, said the Federal Government “is ready” to transform the country’s cashew sector from a largely raw commodity export industry into a value-adding, competitive and industrialised ecosystem that would deliver shared prosperity.

She said the Federal Government had urged stakeholders in the cashew processing sector to ensure 30 per cent value addition on the product before export.

The forum attracted stakeholders from cashew and product-producing countries such as Vietnam and India. A Vietnamese investor, Mr Vui Vu Quy, who came with his Nigerian manager, Chimaobi Okpokiri, tasked the Federal Government with the provision of infrastructure to encourage investment in the sector. In a brief chat with The Guardian, he lamented the lack of good roads, electricity and warehousing facilities in the country.

“The government should provide power, fix the roads and build warehouses, so that businessmen from other countries will bring in money to invest. When the industry is developed, there will be jobs in the country,” he said.

Asked how Vietnam developed its cashew industry, he said his country sources about 80 per cent of the raw materials from Africa, as it does more of the processing.

A stakeholder from Enugu State, one of Nigeria’s highest growers of cashew, Paul Ogbu, alleged that the South East was sidelined in everything, especially the support for cashew farmers. He urged the new NCAN executive to do something about the South-East matter.

The Chief Executive Officer of National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), Olusegun Adebayo, outlined plans to support cashew processors and farmers under National Cashew Agro-industrial Processing (NCAP).

He said they applied for 18,000 hectares in Kwara State for backward integration and replacing old cashew trees with improved seedlings on existing estates to boost production.